Quick update

I have around 8 minutes to add this so it won't be lengthy.

Yesterday we visited a traditional Maori village, the name of which I'm not even going to attempt to reproduce here.

I told you it was a long name...

The whole village was wreathed in steam from the geysers

Traditional carvings on the village meeting house

This is where you can leave your dinner to cook while you're at work (it acts like a slow cooker)

It was fascinating; geysers spout up all over the place and one house had recently been abandoned because one had erupted into the kitchen. There were hot pools of varying temperatures, all steaming quietly (and some not so quietly) and we were treated to a traditional dance and song presentation by some of the inhabitants, who kindly posed for photos afterwards.

The protruding eyes and tongue are meant to be intimidating to enemies

This guy really seemed to enjoy pulling faces!

All the teams with some of the dancers

From there we went to the Polynesian Spa in Rotorua and staff, parents and kids alike spent an hour luxuriating in the naturally warm water. It was wonderfully relaxing although the kids seemed to get their second wind from it and talked non-stop all the way back to Hamilton, telling gory stories in the back of the bus.

Today (in around 10 mins) we go to the glow worm caves at Waitomo where we will spend about 3 hours in inky black caves underground, followed by lunch on a sheep farm and then a visit to a bird reserve where kiwis and other indigenous birds are protected.

Back at home apparently we have a mention on the BBC News website at
http://bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cumbria-14135392