As it was Jack's birthday, we took a trip to the Coromandel Peninsula with some friends that we met when we were staying in the backpackers. There were 3 vans and we all drove up in a convoy, some vans a bit slower than others (our Mr Jingles!!) but we all got there safely!

Our first stop was Hahei, where we camped for the night. We didn't get to do too much sighseeing that day, as the drive took a bit longer than we expected - the roads are so wyndy, we were doing 20-30k's per hour for about an hour!!

The campsite we stayed on was right on the beach which was lovely, watched the sunset and had a few drinks all wrapped up in our blankets to keep warm!

The next day we got up early and set off to Hot Water Beach. On the beach there is a natural hot spring, and you can dig your own spa!! When we got there it was really packed, not much room left to dig our own - there is only a certain part of the beach where you can do it, the rest of the beach was pretty much deserted. The water is so hot, it actually burns your feet a little bit, so it's good to have a bucket of cold water handy just incase it gets too hot!

After some lunch (2 minute noodles on our portable cooker...) we headed up to Cathedral Cove. This is a walk that takes about an hour to get there, and you can stop at other bays on the way. The first one was Gemstone Bay, which was lovely - it has no sand, but massive stones instead. The next one was Stingray Bay (we didn't see any) and it was completely deserted which was really nice. Then we got to Cathedral Cove which was beautiful. We had a well earned sit down (it wasn't really that hot, but by the time we got there we were knackered!!). I really wanted to go for a swim, but i didn't have things with me - it probably would've been too cold anyway!

We got back to Tauranga about 6pm on the Sunday, it was a really good weekend.

On the Tuesday (Jack's birthday) we went out for an Indian (a rare treat to be dining out!!) and then went to the beach to watch the Lunar Eclipse. It was good at first, but then it started taking aaaages, and it was really cold, so we went home!

Mr Jingles is due for registration and WOF (Warranty of Fitness) very soon, so we have to save our pennies (or cents??) and not go away at the weekends for the time being, just incase we have to pay out quite a lot. We know we need new tyres, so we're going to get them this weekend anyway and hope that everything else is ok!

So we're both fine, working away during the week and making the most of weekends.

Hope everyone is well

Linsey and Jack xxx