The wheely long day!

Fully recharged I head on up to Auckland. After a night in what can only be described as a box with beds I thankfully check out of the ACB Base hostel and join my new bus members :). (For anyone looking for a hostel in Central Auckland try nomads but NOT the fat camel)

However today was going to be a rather long unlucky day. Firstly our new driver Panda was an hour late and to add to that he forgot to pick up someone. But after a little faffing we were on the road again. The new bus seemed nice, people seemed friendly. We all got to do our little introductions and it turned out there were a lot of Brits! Plus Panda seemed really friendly if a little unorganised.

The scenery of the north island is very different from the south. At times i fell asleep and wake up thinking I was back in Derbyshire! About 20 minutes from our coastal destination of Hahei disaster strikes... BANG! Something catches underneath the front left tyre and panda luckily keeps the bus steady and pulls into a lay by. This is not going to be pretty. And sure enough the tyre is completely shredded. I've never seen anything like it! So we all pile out, whack on the suncream and take loads of pictures. Some of the lads attempted to lift the bus to change the tyre but that thing was not moving. So we call in the experts: an old man and his gorgeous golden retriever! 2 hours later and we are on the road again!

We finally reach the coast and check in. Then it's a mad dash to the nearby hot water beach to soak in the geothermal hot springs. A rather interesting experience and a nice way to relax after a wheely long day ;)!