After toying with the idea of skydiving in the skydive capital of the world, Taupo (I was the most keen, then Anthony, then Scott, then Mum), we decided against it and elected instead for a cruise on Lake Taupo. We went to the harbour office to check out availability and picked The Barbary, a ketch yacht previously owned by Errol Flynn (he won it in a card game!)

The cruise was absolutely fantastic! We motored and sailed, the water was beautiful and we had clear views of the 3 volcanoes in the Tongariro National Park. There was a fresh snowfall 5 days previously on the peaks, and this was the first day that we'd been able to see the snow. There were only 4 other passengers - a German couple and a chatty guy from Wellington and his Mum. The 4 kids all jumped into the water under the modern-style Mauri carvings at Mine Bay. This was my favourite bit of the trip so far. It was very surreal swimming in clear water under a huge carved face and being able to see snowy volcanoes in the distance - loved it! We also got fed coffee and cookies to warm us up after our dip, and it was a very relaxing trip.

We had lunch in a fab cafe in Taupo (pumpkin and spinach quiche - yum!) Then I drove to Napier - my first fast driving since I totalled Twinkle. We stopped on the way to view some unexpected waterfalls and stopped again for some fresh juice just outside of Napier.

The apartment I'd booked through the Lisa Rose Motel turned out to be half a large wooden town-house and was our best accommodation so far! We grabbed ourselves a pac'n'save dinner, booked a wine tour for the next day and taught Mum "floral-head". Very funny - we started talking in Bristol accents and got Mum to make an exploding noise whenever a 10 cleared the cards! Scott and I star-gazed and tried to work out how to use our Southern hemisphere star-chart.