We left Whitianga (Mercury Bay) early in the morning and stopped off in Whangamata for lunch. En route to Rotorua we visited the Karangahake Scenic reserve to explore a stunning bush clad gorge. We took the 'windows walk' which involved walking along the river, crossing over two swing bridges and walking through a 1km long railway tunnel used in the old gold mining days. We jumped back on the coach and headed to Pareroa for lunch (a town famous for a lemon & ...

We departed Auckland today to begin our journey on the Kiwi Experience and made our way to our first stop, Mercury Bay. En route we stopped off in Thames for Lunch. We made our way to the Coromandel Peninsula an area renowned for its lovely beaches. When we arrived we took an hour and a half walk to Cathedral Cove, a beautiful coastal area. The tide was coming in so we had some fun trying to miss the waves to get between each side of the arched shaped rock. We he...

Today we met up with David and Maria again in Auckland. They took us up to the top of Mount Eden where we had fantastic views of the cityscape and the huge volcanic crater at the top. From there we went for a coffee and they dropeed us off in Newmarket so I could buy some warmer clothes for our journey down South. After some shopping we got the Link bus back to the hostel where we just chilled out with some really cool guys in our room. Will be back in Auckland a...

Katie:We left Auckland on our first Kiwi Experience bus to Pahia in The Bay of Islands. We arrived at Pahia in the early afternoon and went for a walk around the area. We made use of the free bike hire at the hostel & went for a ride around the local area and along the beach front- the bikes were quite fun as they had no gears & you had to pedal backwards to brake! We rode back to the hostel just before it poured down with rain & spent the rest of the...

Arrived in Tauranga at around 3am and was very knackered, but it was wonderful to finally see David & Maria again. The following day after a long lie in David & Maria took us around the local area of where they live. We drove to see their beach (which was lovely despite the cold weather) and after a lovely lunch we started to walk up Mount Maunganui until it started to rain. The view was lovely and it was then we realised how easy it is to fall in love wi...