Ended up staying in a campervan park near the middle of Auckland, had a much needed shower and some food and headed to bed. Next day and we headed to the Jucy office, collected some stuff from the other van and headed south. We were experts on getting out of the city now as we spend hours doing it the first time, we drove east to the Coromandel Peninsula, we firstly drove up to Coromandel Town, we weather was finally starting to look good so we sat about in the sun for awhile doing nothing, not much to do here really except sit on the beach. Heaps of signs everywhere saying no free camping so we booked into another campervan park and stayed there. It was Sunday and everything was closed so we did nothing.

Next day and we headed off to the Driving Creek Railway, some local nutter who owned tons of land had decided to built a narrow gauge railway in his back garden and you could ride the train to the top of the hill for some nice photo's. It took him 27years to make and included double Decker bridges, guy must have been loaded and surely could have spend his money on better things. At the top he'd built the 'eyeful' tower, where he held wedding and functions. After that we wanted to head down the 309 road but it turned out to be closed way down, we headed a little bit down the road to check out some waterfalls and some other stuff, none of it turned out to be to interesting so we headed back up the road and made our way for Whiting.

We reached Whitianga and headed to the information site to see what there was to do, we found out it was a really good place to go diving and we'd been meaning to do our padi for ages so we headed off to the dive shop to talk to the guy. He was really enthusiastic and we wanted to book it there but there was one other dive shop in a town 40km away we thought we'd phone first. The first one turned out to be better and he gave us a good deal anyway, he told us you have to get a medical if you do your padi in oz or nz so we walked up to the medical centre and booked medicals for the next morning. We ended up camping next to the beach that night.

Went for our medicals the next morning, then headed back round to the dive shop and picked up some of the stuff we had to read before getting into the pool. Spent the day sitting by the beach reading our books and sitting in the sun really. It was here we met the local Whitianga nutter called Phil. He seemed ok at first, we were making some food and the back door of the van was open, some guy who was walking two massive dogs came over and started chatting away, looked as if he was scoofing a bottle of beer, turned out to be a half bottle of Jack Daniels. Somehow he managed to convince us he had a piece of land beside his house we could camp on, we tried to tell him for ages we were ok but he insisted. I could hear the deliverance music playing in my head but he told us he had a family and that and he wasn't a nutter. We drove to his house and true enough he did have small area of grass beside his house. He then invited us into his house, we were thinking of running away at this point was we were certain he'd run after us, he was totally hammered as well which didn't help. We ended up meeting his 2 kids and his really angry wife who wasn't too chuffed about the two strangers he'd taken home with him. We made some excuses and bolted back to the van, he kept on knocking on the doors offering weird stuff like tarpaulin sheets!!!! Somehow managed to get to sleep.

After setting the alarms for 6 in the morning we made a sharp exit from Phil's house and back to the dive shop. We spent the first half of the day in the pool doing different skills, brid was struggling to find a wet suit that fitted her properly so I don't think she was well chuffed. Headed back to the shop to grab some lunch and then attempt to do a shore dive, we drove around for ages trying to find a beach calm enough but once we finally dragged all our stuff down to the beach the waves got bigger so we just ended up playing in the waves for a couple of hours. Brid got nailed by a couple of big ones which was quick funny and she looks likes a drowned rat when she's wet. Back at the shop and we had a couple of beers and did some homework then headed off to the campsite for and early night.

Next day and we went out on their boat called Scubadoo. On the way there we spotted the other dive schools boat which was a pile of crap being towed by an even smaller boat, that would have been us if we'd booked with them. We only managed to get in one dive as it was pretty rough, supposedly there were killer sharks in the area but we didn't spot any of them. Back to the shop for another couple of beers and another night in the campsite.

Today we managed to fit in 3 dives to almost finish our Padi, we had a different instructor today but luckily he was a good laugh as well, headed off in the scubadoo again to some random island I can't remember the name of. We also managed to catch 3 crayfish along the way which the instructor said he cook up for us later on. Last dive we went scallop fishing, we were allowed to catch 20 each so we ended up with a fair few only problem being I don't like sea food. Back at the shop and another couple of beers and we finished our final exam and finally completed our Padi. We headed over to the instructors house and boiled up the Cray fish and scallops for us, I managed to try a wee bit but I'm still not convinced over seafood. Headed off in the van again and camped beside the beach. The owner of the shop offered us a free dive the next day as part of a clean up the beach thing so we thought we might as well.

Up early and at the dive shop getting our gear ready for going out, we bought a mask and snorkel each for the shop for a ridiculous price, about a quarter of what they were worth and headed out to the beach. After allot of faffing about brid and I eventually got into the water but brid was complaining her goggles were leaking, after what seemed like a 20mins discussion about the bloody goggles I eventually wore hers, only annoying thing being they were bright pink, I looked like a right weirdo getting out in front of heaps of people.

Back at shop to hand back in the gear and say our goodbyes to the guys there. Off for some lunch and to decide where we were gonna go next. We decided to stay one more night as we were covered in sand and were in desperate need of a shower.

Next day and we headed off round the coast a wee bit to a beach called Cathedral cove, it was a really nice day so we walked for a bit along the beach and though some caves along the beach, Brid wasn't quick enough getting through the cave and got soaked. Had some lunch and waited for low tide to head to hot water beach. There is some thermal underground thing going on here and the sand is roasting, people dig holes in the sand and sit in them, minks. Thinking it wouldn't be that hot we dived straight in, it was bloody roasting and we burnt our feet a bit.Headed south to Waihi and stayed there that night.