I waited outside the hostel at 7:30am ready to be collected by the Stray bus.I was the only one to get on the minibus so I sat near the back and joked about being the only one on the trip but Daisy the driver reassured me that there were other people to be collected.About 8 people got on from the YHA international hostel and a guy called Stefan came and sat across the aisle from me and he seemed friendly.Everyone else seemed very quiet so I was a bit worried about what my trip would be like.Daisy said that there were so many people booked on the trip that they were operating another bus so I was a bit jealous that I wasn't on the bigger one. We all stopped at the office to check in and I started chatting to two girls who seemed really nice, which made me want to be on the other bus even more!One of them told me that we would be meeting as one big gtoup later though when we had a big BBQ.We then headed off towards Hahei which is on the Coromandel Peninsula, east of Auckland.We stopped off on the way to see some Kauri trees which have a huge trunk and are thousands of years old - after my obligatory tree hugging we got on the road again and then stopped at a viewing point to take some pictures of the wonderful scenery.

We stopped at a small town called Thames to pick up food supplies and drinks for that evening.We then arrived and Hahei mid afternoon and Stefan, Laura (an Irish girl), Sarah (a Dutch girl) and I went for a walk to Cathedral Cove which was about a two hour long walk.It was a really pretty walk along a coastal path, stopping off to admire the views and explore some other coves. Cathedral Cove is really pretty and has a white sandy beach but the water is a lot colder than in Australia so I wasn't brave enough to swim.

At 5pm we met at the bus to go to Hot Water Beach.We all travelled on the big bus but as there weren't enough seats Laura and I went to the back of the bus and two guys called Ryan and Devon gave up their seats for us and stood up.Ryan is from Yorkshire and Devon from the US and they seemed like nice guys.When we got to the beach we headed over to where there were already loads of people who had dug their own 'spa' and were sitting in the hot water.We had some spades to dig a hole but as the tide hadn't gone out yet and there wasn't much space left on the beach it was a bit of a struggle as the sea kept coming up and knocking down the sides of the hot pool.The idea is that you dig down and hit the hot springs that then heats the water that is in your hole.It took the guys ages to dig the hole but eventually there was enough space (after commandeering someone else's hole as well) for us all to sit.The water was boiling so when I got in it burnt my feet so we had to add some more water to make it bearable to sit down.I hadn't quite acclimatised to the weather so I sat down in my bikini bottoms but kept three layers of tops on which probably looked a bit weird! I sat next to Catherine and Sarah who were the two girls I'd spoken to in the office.We left after a couple of hours and then headed back to get ready for dinner.They'd put on a really good spread for the BBQ andI sat with Laura who was sat with Ryan, Catherine and another guy called Stefan who was a huge blond guy.

After dinner we had a kiwi version of an Eton Mess and then had some drinks and got to know each other.