So we were up and ready at 8am for our bus out of Auckland to Hahei. The bus was 30 minutes late though and they turned up in a huge hired coach! Apparently they are really busy at the moment as it's peak summer time. Usually Stray have nice smaller buses. Then we were a bit annoyed because we didn't make a stop at Mt Eden as the bus wouldn't make it.

Anyway, we made our way to Hahei across the Corumandel mountain range. Lovely scenery on the windy roads. We made a supermarket and lunch stop in a town called Thames. Captain Cook came here and named it Thames - apparently he said the river running through it reminded him of the river Thames and that's what the river is called too. Looks nothing like London!

We were back on our way and areived at the Hahei camp ground at 15.10pm - 1hour 40mins! We're so p***ed off as well now because we can't go to hot-water beach as the tide is up...because we're late!!! That was one of the big things we were looking forward to. Basically, you go down to the beach with a shovel, and dig a hole until the hot water stream underneath starts to rise upwards and fill the hole making a little hot water bath. Annoyed.

So we got a 4 dorm room anyway - Dean and Jodie were at the front of the bus so managed to get the 4-bed dorm for us to share. It's tiny, but it's not as bad when you know the other people in your room. Only here one night anyway.

We quickly got sorted, slapped on some sun cream and went down to the beach. Absolutely lovely beach and there's lots of islands out at sea so it's a lovely view too. We walked along the beach and then on a 3 hour roundtrip walk along the coast to Cathedral Cove. We stopped at Gem Bay and Stingray Bay on the way which had lovely views and Stingray had a nice secluded beach too. Then there's a nice beach at Cathedral Cove as well. We walked through the cove to the other side of the beach and saw a group from our Stray bus who did the kayaking trip. We were going to do it but it cost $75 (£37.50) and thought we'd get better views from above. Plus we got to go to the other bays doing the walk. It's beautiful down there with the views and nice beach - got some nice photos.

We headed back, on a slightly different route through the grotto, to make it back in time for BBQ dinner at 7.30pm! Had to scramble to get a shower before hand though. Loads of people were rushing to get one before dinner and instead of getting one in the morning.

The BBQ was really good - chicken drumsticks, big sausages, potatoes, BBQ'd sweet potato with onions and stuff, salad and bread rolls. All for $10 (£5) each and cooked by the driver. It's our first one since going away. We didn't even get to have one in Oz!
It was a good atmosphere and everyone had picked up some drinks from the supermarket earlier today.

It wasn't long before I got the Spoon game going! It's such a great game to get a group of people involved and is a good ice breaker to get people talking etc. There were twelve of us playing at one point. It's so fast paced and frantic though, and it's really funny too when everyone dives in to grab a spoon. Only thing is, we don't have any cheap spirits, to hand out a shot to the person who doesn't get a spoon. I'm working on it though - might have to get a kitty going! It's a good laugh anyway and went on for a couple of hours.