After a night in Auckland (and feeling slightly worse for wear having got home at 4am and up at 7am!), we left the big smoke of the city and headed east towards Mercury Bay.

En-route we stopped at Mount Eden to take in the 360' views of Auckland city, the Waitemata harbour and beyond. From there it was onto the motorway heading for the Coromandel Peninsula, which is renowned for its stunning beaches and untouched native forest.

We stopped off at Hahei Beach (Hahei Marine Reserve) at around lunchtime and myself plus a few others decided to explore the volcanis coast and Cathedral Cove by Kayak. We had an amazing guide who informed us of all the interesting things to notice along the way. I have to admit my arm muscles certainly got a toning session; after 4 hours of paddling its no surprise! However, I'm glad I chose to Kayak instead of the trek to the beach, like the rest of the bus.

Come late afternoon it was time to head off to our hostel for the night in Mercury Bay, Turtle Cove Backpackers. By this time i had met a few people on the bus, so myself, Jen and Robbie decided to hire some awesome looking bicycles and have a small cyclce around the picturesque town of Whitianga (Fi-ti-anga). When you drive around and along the coastline, its no wonder the popoulation almost quadruples during the summer months - absolutely stunning!

After our cycle it was time fore a little light refreshment down at the pub, and the worst 'seafood basket' in the world (everything from mussels to crab sticks was covered in bread crumbs and deep fried!! Bloody disgusting).