Saturday morning and we got picked up from Auckland at 8.15am by our bus driver Lauren, who was going to be our driver right down to Queenstown. After a few other pickups we went to the Auckland lookout and took some pictures of the view and the volcano crater.

On the journey to Mercury Bay we stopped at a supermarket to stock up and get some lunch and then stopped at Cathedral Cove. This involved a 30minute walk to the most gorgeous beach i have ever seen. It was beautiful and so much nicer because cars had no access and therefore not that many people were there. The sea was so blue and there was a rock archway to walk through to the next beach as well, just like paradise, was amazing.

Final stop was where we were staying for the first night, Mercury Bay in a little family run hostel called Turtle Cove. After an absolutely amazing Spaghetti Bolognaise dinner we all played Killer pool and a few other games and i am sorry to say that due to everyone ganging up on me and making me drink every time anyone had to nominate, i ended up being the only one from the bus drunk. Good first impression hey!lol! Actually it was really as showed i was up for a laugh when people i had just met kept making me drink. Freya from our bus and I then went to the pub in the town once the hostel bar had shut, whilst everyone else stayed back to watch a film. We only stayed for one but it was nice to be able to say that we had seen somewhere other than the hostel.

Next morning i was very pleased to be leaving the hostel as had been absolutely bitten to pieces in the night, seriously bitten.........at least 9 bites on one arm alone!