After getting back from the Bay of Islands I spent a couple of days in Auckland.

I jumped on another Stray Bus and headed south from Auckland. The first night was to be in Hahei.

Our bus driver was called Skins. We had a really good mix of people on the bus, Brits, Irish, Germans, Dutch, Italiam, Argentinian, Swedes, Americans and Canadians.

Ski was giving us all the lowdown on the local history, culture and nature on the bus while on our way to the Cormantal Peninsula. He was telling us about kiwi birds and how they nest on the ground in the area we are in. We stopped at one of the many phoot stops along the way when skins reminded us to keep a look out for Kiwi nests.

The photo piont was about a two minute walk from the bus. As we all headed back to the bus Skins asked us to be very quiet as he ahd found a Kiwi nest. We all slowly and quietly walked with him to the nest. It was difficult to see from where i was standing but all the girls were like `a that's so cute' and snapping away on their cameras. Ipushed through to get a better look and totally pished myself laughing when I seen the nest. It was made fromold dry grass all pushed together in a circle and a kiwi fruit as an egg with a toy kiwi bird as one of the chicks. None of the girls had even realised that it was a piss take when they were taking photos!

hahei only has a population of around 270 in winter but can reach 7000 in the summer months.

We arrived in hahei early afternoon. A group of us decided to go sea kayaking to Cathedral Cove while the others decided to walk.

Cathedral Cove is beautiful little spot with golden sandy beaches and a gigantic limestone arch and natural waterfall shower. The kayak tour took us around the limestone arches, caves and islands of the Cathedral Cove area.

We managed to spot a small native penguin next to one of our kayaks and some male seals basking in the sun.

At night after we had our bbq and a few beers then we headed to 'hot water beach'

I have never seen or heard of anywhere like this place before. For two hours either side of low tide, you can access an area of sand in front of a rocky outcrop at the middle of the beach where hot water oozes up from beneath the surface.

We took some shovels with us and dug some pools. The water and sand is so hot in some places that it's almost impossible to stand there, even though it's 9pm and is quite cold. Once you find a spot which is the right temperature you virtually have your own spa pool.

Because there are no street lights or light pollution the sky was crammed full of stars, unlike anything you will back in Britain. It was quite a magnificent site.