I woke just after 6. I grabbed our backpacks and dragged them out the dorm. Lee was still out cold so I gave him a little shake then went to get a wash. I came back and Lee had gone back to sleep. He was feeling a little delicate after drinks last night. Once we were up, dressed and checked out we headed for the pick up point. It was right next to a cafe so I went in and got us some coffees. It was the worst coffee. Once we were sat waiting for the bus Lee said 'why was you in such a rush to get here for 7?' So I said 'because they wanted us here 15mins early and you didn't get out of bed until 6:45'. Lee said 'it wasn't 7 it was half 7'.... I practically ran to the bus stop ahead of Lee just incase they went without us and now he throws out there that it was half 7 grrrr. Well at least we had time to get some breakfast.
The bus was late... We got on and headed to Thames to get the food shop. We all put in $10 and the tour guide, Beanz, bought the food for a group BBQ. Me and Lee were looking around for new people when we got to Thames because we were told there was only 1 place left on the bus from Thames to Hahei so if everyone turned up we'd have to get off and wait a couple of days for the next bus. The bus wasn't full so we got to stay on.
The hardest part of this trip for us is food. We have a supermarket stop and we're suppose to buy enough food until the next stop. We haven't got a fridge, we don't know what will be in the kitchen where we stay and it's a guess at what time of the day the next shop will be plus we're trying to do it all on a budget and relatively healthy. We got bread, avacados and cup of soups....
They did an alcohol stop but we were feeling a little delicate from last night so we got fanta.
We stopped at the hot water beach where you dig a hole in the sand and hot water comes up and fills it from natural springs. The tide was in so we carried onto Hahei.
We stayed at 'Paradise on the beach'. Because me and Lee are a couple we were put in a separate room (and charged extra?) we threw are bags in and headed for the beach. It was a pretty amazing beach, well more the view. It was like we were back in Thailand with the giant rocks coming out of the water. The sea looked bright blue and the weather was perfect. We carried on walking along the shore then headed up the hill to Cathedral Cove. The tour guide told us its one of the nicest beaches in New Zealand plus it was in Narnia. We started walking up the hill, and kept going, and going and going. The scenery went from beach to rainforest to meadows back to rainforest then beach.... One hour later we arrived! The cove is framed by an arch way in the rocks. We were so warm we stripped down to swim wear and went in the water. The water was clear but it was freezing! Lee threw himself in first. I was a big girl. It was cold! I went in up to my shoulders to copy Lee (anything you can do I can do better) - yeah after a minute that was enough. Lee won I had to get out. Even swimming didn't warm me up and as soon as I gave up Lee got out too.
We sat on the shore, drying off and just watching/looking. We never realised New Zealand had beaches like this.
We had to hike back to camp. It seamed easier on the way back (probably because it was majority up hill on the way there). We got showered, put warm clothes on and headed to the BBQ area to chill out. We got talking to a couple of Dutch girls and a French lad - they know a little bit of Spanish so we started with Spanish then they were teaching me Dutch then French... I was in my element. Food finally got served and it was scrum-diddly-umptious! The sausages were huge. I wasn't a massive fan of the steak so Lee got mine. I tried to eat my sweet corn like Jamie, a girl saw me and told me there's a psychological rationale that tells you what type of person you are by how you eat your sweetcorn. Jamie apparently your very organised. 'I concur'
After chats and food we went bed ready for the 6am rise.