Tuesday 11th January - Auckland to Hahei

We were up at 6:00 am today as we prepared to meet our tour bus and fellow travellers.Breakfast was a quick coffee and muffin from Starbucks as we desperately tried to cram everything into our 2 cases.

At 8:00 am our bus (Mrs Bayley) and our guide/driver (Lucky real name Jade) turned up. Once on board we said a quick hello to the people already on board and set off to pick up the rest of the group.There are 19 of us altogether from various parts of the world (more about that later).First stop was Mount Eden, one of the many volcanoes in New Zealand - there were some amazing views back across Auckland from the top.Second stop of the day an hour later was for toilets and coffee!!!Once we were all on the bus, Lucky played a game with us to help us all get to know each other.Starting at the back of the bus, each person had to state their name, where they were from and what item (imaginary!!) they would bring to the party that night, each subsequent person had to also repeat all the previous names etc.The poor people at the front of the bus had to try and remember all 19!!!I'll try and reproduce them all here:

Eric (rocket ship) and Alysse (wallaby) - brother & sister from US

Morten (cow) and Marco (truck) - friends from Netherlands

Jumpy (kangaroo) - from Italy

Bob (memory) and Ilona (Ferrrari) - from UK but Ilona is German

Jana (camel) - from Germany but lives in Dubai

Antonella (Maori man) - from Germany

Ant (bottle of Jack Daniels) & me (laptop)

Nanou (bottle of Bordeaux) - from France

Chris (an England winning Rugby shirt!) - from UK but lives in Auckland

Rob (astronaut), Cathy (Kiwi) & Charlie (her Chihuahua Jack) - family from UK

Svenga (Mrs Bayley) - from Germany

Anna (didn't bring anything to the party but taught us Swiss German!!) - from Switzerland

Marie (cowrie tree) - from Germany

Our next stop was Thames (yes it is named after the river), to buy provisions for this evening's party.The area got its name when Captain James Cook saw the big river and thought it looked like the Thames back home.The area we are travelling to and through is called the Coromandel peninsula - lush rainforest fringed by sparkling, white sandy beaches with crystal clear water perfect for swimming, surfing and snorkelling.

Our last stop was our final destination and home for the night, Hahei. Hahei was named after an explorer called Hei who thought the land formation looked like his nose!Our accommodation is a backpacker's cabin on a camp site; we have a double bed, a bunk bed, fridge, microwave, hot plate and toaster.After spending a few minutes throwing some things into a back pack, we headed off for our first hike of the tour - a two hour (return) trip to Cathedral Cove.This was the location for one of the opening scenes in Prince Caspian, the second of the Narnia films.In the film, the Pevensie children find themselves transported back to Narnia on this very beach.We spent about an hour here swimming and enjoying the sun before heading back to the campground where Lucky took us by bus to HotBeach.

Hot Beach is an amazing natural wonder.For approximately two hours either side of low tide, you can dig your own spa pool as water from hot springs seeps up through the sand.It was incredibly hot!!! Back at the camp site, we grabbed a quick 5 minute shower (literally as the showers are on a timer!!!) as Lucky cooked dinner for us.This consisted of salads, red sweet potatoes, garlic bread and for the meat eaters, New Zealand lamb and pork sausages.For us veggies (I think there are 3 of us) she made a vegetable stack of mushrooms, courgettes and cheese).We also all got to try a New Zealand green lipped mussel with garlic and white wine butter - it was the biggest mussel I have ever seen - about half the size of my hand.Dinner was washed down with the copious amounts of wine and beer we had purchased earlier in Thames.After dinner, a number of us cleared away and washed up as Lucky made dessert - fresh fruit with hot melted chocolate dip!!!!By this time it was 10:20 and Ant and I were well ready for our bed!!!