Up early for our 8am Stray bus out of Auckland to go north to stay in a place called Paihia. Our driver today is called Gollum. He hasn't explained why yet. Absolute bonus on the bus...free WiFi! We're not getting a sim card for NZ because it's too expensive and they give a really useless package for Internet. So at least now we can contact family for free on the bus. Another cool thing was being able to Skype message Dan at the Stray office and book in a free day tour around Auckland when we get back there in a few days.
It's not a huge tour bus either, just a 24 seater and there's only 15 of us, so we're not taking massive crowds of people everywhere.

We made a quick coffee stop at about 9am in Warkworth, which has a nice river running through it, and then on to hug a tree. Yeah, a tree. It's a 600 year old Kauri Tree though. A short drive from there took us to Goat Island. The scenery is amazing on the drive up. At times it definitely reminds me of England. Difference is it's lovely and sunny! Although there are a few clouds around today, and when we looked at one part of the coast, where the dark cloud was, it looked a bit like the lake district!

The other difference is that the sea is lovely - different shades of blue, rather than brown at home. Goat island is in a Marine Reserve and we got a little trip on a glass bottom boat around part of it. Saw different fish like snappers and goats (fish) plus a Ray!! Nice.

We made a quick stop just after Goat Island for a fantastic view of beaches on either side of the peninsula. It's weird to see these rolling hills with grazing land, like we have in England, then see a golden sandy beach and a turquoise see.

We stopped for lunch in a small village and later stopped off for a pee in a famous toilet... Made from glass bottles and has grass on the roof and designed by some local famous arty guy. It's not that good though.

As we got close to Paihia, we got a fantastic high up view of the bay of islands. We had a quick bus tour around little Paihia and made a quick stop to take some more photos before being taken to our hostel for the night, Base. We're in a nice cabin with 8 people - 7 of us from our bus and then there's another guy already in here. Lisa who we met yesterday is stopping in our dorm too. Only problem - one shower and toilet, to 6 girls from our Stray bus. One girl said I should be paying for this privilege...
$28 (£14) a night though and we need to stay 2 nights here because we have an early starting tour tomorrow and aren't back until late. The third night we're going to get a room at YHA around the corner because it's $25 (£12.50) a night for us and is only a 4-bed.

We dropped our bags and quickly got to the beach. Lazed around there for a couple of hours, and both nodded off a couple of times. It was really sunny and hot in the sun, but there was a nice breeze so we could lay there all day without breaking a sweat. There doesn't seem to be humidity in New Zealand so far, so it's more bearable in the sun. The coastline here is absolutely lovely. There's islands around and in the distance, the beach and sea are really nice and there was even a cruise ship anchored in the bay - Royal Caribbean I think. It felt like we were On a tropical island or something. Really not what I expected in New Zealand for some reason, but definitely a bonus.

There's lots of nice restaurants here and a couple of nice bars and then lots of little trinket shops and cafes. A lot of it is for the cruise ships though and is overpriced. There's a backpackers road though and then there's the main "town centre" which is actually just one small road with shops on it. Really nice quaint place though.

After a relaxing couple of hours, we walked to Countdown which seemed like it was miles away! Bought some salad stuff for tea and to use to make our lunch for tomorrow. Finally got back to the kitchen at the hostel...manic. Small kitchen and absolutely full of women. I swear this whole Paihia place is full of women!

It took a while, but we made our scrambled eggs with ham, onions, peppers and tomatoes, plus plenty of salad on the side. Everywhere was busy so we went and sat outside our cabin to eat our meal - was better that way because we could drink our cheap wine we bought from the bottle shop.

Instead of drinking in the bar we went back and got another cheap bottle of wine to share between us and Lisa, before getting ready for another early start tomorrow! Having a bit of alcohol usually helps you sleep better in these hostels. I'd say either get a decent pair of earplugs or sleep with a big bottle of vodka.