Biiiig Lake...

So here we are in Taupo,
Yesterday was a big day of adventuring, starting off with a walk through the beautiful and interesting Redwood grove just outside of Rotarua, where there is an amazingly diverse tree-scape (made that one up...), due to then fact that the trees were originally planted to decide what trees would be best for timber plantations in NZ, and although some other tree won out, the Californian Redwoods have taken over the grove, and they are awesome! And HUGE!
Next on the trail was this "3D Maze" that we passed on the way into town, and mentally marked down for a closer look. Although at first glance it looked easy, the wooden castle-like construction, actually presented a real challenge! The idea was you choose from one of two start points (Boh and I decided to go separately and add a little competition to the mix), and must reach each of the four coloured corners, before exiting the maze from your original entrance. Now, the result: a grudging second to me...sigh...while Boh pulled off a miraculous win (even though I actually reached all corners first...just got a little lost on the way out...lol).
So our final activity for the day was also the most anticipated...THE ZORB!!!! This futuristic sounding contraption was invented here in New Zealand, and consists of an 11 foot high plastic ball, with a smaller ball suspended inside, separated by like 2 feet of air. Now, you might be wondering what on earth they do with such a thing...well the answer is obvious...add water, up to three game thrill seekers...and roll it down a big hill...yep. Awesome. So it came down to the choice of going together down the straight track, which looked pretty tame, or going solo down the zig zag...yeeeaaaah. So clearly we opted for option two, which ended up being crazy fun! Although our most expensive splurge so far, it was definately worth it. (Unfortunatley didn't buy any of the photos cos they were major expensive!)
Finally it was back to the caravan park for a long soak in the hot pool to warm us up.

Today started off with rain, which was actually good in a way, because there is not likely to be so much ice and frost on the roads. (yesterday at the redwoods, we were astounded by an iced over puddle - sounds silly, but it was cool - which had like centimetre-thick shards of ice on top!)
Despite the bad weather, we decided to follow through on our plan to conquer the "Luge" today, which meant taking a gondola up a mountain (cant remember the name...), then jumping on some little cart type things and zooooming down again, jumping on a chairlift back to the top, and going again!!! IT WAS SOOO COOL! Very cold, very wet, and very sore hands (from holding onto the handlebars) but so worth it! We even ended up getting two FREE rides each cos these other tourists decided they had done their dash, and gave us their remaining tickets. Again, unfortunately the photos were hell expensive, but we can asure you that it was an awesome track, and great fun.
After drying off, we headed to Taupo, where we are now, gotta be quick time running out
love you all