Our second day in Paihia was very chilled, involving a walk along the beach, watching a boat race, as well as visiting the markets. After leaving the sunny shores of the Bay of Islands for cold, chilly, Auckland, we arrived back at Sue’s house for a last cosy and comfortable night before our travels. We’d actually planned to spend a few more days in Auckland, and visit some of the islands nearby, but the buses down south were becoming less frequent, due to it being the start of the winter, so it was a case of spending 2 nights in Auckland, or 4, so we chose the lesser. Although sad to be leaving Auckland for 2nd time without having really explored the city, we were comforted by the fact that most people say to get out of Auckland as soon as you can! And as we drove through the countryside, we understood why as we started to leave the motorway and head into the green pastures and rolling hills (with many many twists and turns!)

Our bus to Paihia had been a sort of extra bus trip on top of the Stray tour, so this was the first time we joined the real bus tour, and met the people we’d spend the best part of the next week with, some of which we knew already from our Paihia trip. After spending time getting coffee an hour into the bus journey (this was a welcome morning surprise!), hitting the cheap supermarket (Pak ‘n’ Save), and stopping for a viewpoint over the Coromandal Penninsula, we arrived after a few hours at the Hahei Holiday resort. With our new friends from the coach, we divided ourselves into bunk beds in large cabins of around 11 people, which were new and comfortable. The accomodation was really nice, and we had a whole kitchen, dining, shower and hot tub area all for just us to use. At the time we arrived there, it was a great relief to find out that the weather was going to be warmer for the 2 days we were there, so once we’d chosen our beds and had some lunch, we set off on a trek to Cathedral Cove, which was a mini hike with lots of ups and downs, ending on a calm beach. We enjoyed the weather on the beach for a short while, before heading back to the holiday park to get ready for our BBQ dinner! We spent this first night getting to know the people on the bus, which was really good as it meant we all knew each other going forward, especially as a lot of us would be spending at least the next few weeks together. The following day we had a slight lie-in (compared to the day before, anyway), and got on the coach to make the short drive to Hot Water Beach, which was pretty busy (maybe because of ANZAC day!?)

This particular beach was pretty special, because it had underground hot springs, and if you dig close to the tide a large hole, it fills with very warm (or in our case, boiling!) water, and you can create your own spa pool on the beach! There was only a small section of the beach that you could do this on, so it was fairly crowded, but we managed to all band together to dig a deep hole, whilst burning our feet on the hot water and sand! Eventually it filled up enough for us to fit about 9 people in the mini spa, enjoying our efforts to dig it! Again, we were lucky with the weather so in the afternoon we headed down onto Hahei beach near to our holiday camp. We sunbathed, and swam and generally relaxed in the pm!

In the evening, we headed to the Pour House, a nearby pub where we sat outside around a fire (it would have been freezing otherwise so I was very glad!) and sampled the Apple Crumble Cider (yum!), before heading back to the cabins to enjoy our last night before yet another early morning bus.

Highlights: Hot Water beach, BBQ, staying at the holiday resort
Accomodation: Hahei Holiday Resort