Jenna:  After my bungy adventure in Taupo we headed east to the city of Napier, located in Hawkes Bay.  The entire city was destroyed by an earthquake in 1931 and was rebuilt in Art Deco style.  Pretty town actually, not at cheesy as I imagined.  I even got to do a little song and dance performance at the local shell.  (And no, it's not a banana I'm using as a microphone). 

We also visited Opossum World, which sells possum-fur garments and houses a large collection of stuffed possums.  They really hate possums in NZ.  They were introduced in the late 1800's and have become serious pests, outnumbering people 20 to 1 and killing a lot of native bird species.  They are actually marsupials, which means the 'kittens' feed from the mother through a pouch, as pictured below.

After Opossum World we did a little wine tasting in Hawkes Bay before heading west again.  The next day we hit Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland in time to see the Lady Knox geyser blow.  I was a little disappointed since I thought this was a natural occurance.  Turns out they soap the thing once a day to create the effect... but it was still cool.  Then we toured the rest of the park, seeing multi-colored pools, boiling mud pools, and all kinds of steam coming from the ground.  The Taupo/Rotorua area is located at the meeting point of the Pacific and Indo-Australian plates, meaning there is all kinds of volcanic activity going on.  Pretty cool area!

We're in Auckland now finishing up an important few details (like selling the van!) before we head out on the 23rd.  Can't believe it's almost over... it's been great but we're definitely looking forward to coming home (or something close to it).  And now a couple pictures with giant Kiwi icons...

The kiwifruit!

L&P - NZ's own soda.  Tastes like a combination of Sprite, ginger ale, and Coke.  Not bad!