We spent a night in Auckland before heading to the Coromandel. Claire was struggling to find her land legs after so long lost at sea and had to develop a new method of walking primarily on tip toes due to inexplicable, excruciating calf pain. Not ideal the day before a hike. Claire was also concerned as, since setting off for the Coromandel, Greg had started acting rather strangely. She couldn't put her finger on what it was but he spent an unusual amount of time mute (even more so than normal) and seemed to have something on his mind. When questioned, Greg would simply say he was worried about the walk. Claire's annoyance with this new behaviour reached boiling point in the supermarket before their 2 day hike up The Pinnacles when Greg was unable to express even the slightest interest in which boil in the bag meal they should take. It was like he had something more important on his mind.

On the short drive between the information centre at the base of the mountain and the start of the walk we picked up our first ever hitchhiker. She was a Dutch girl who had underestimated the distance from town to the start of the walk. Smelly but nice would be an appropriate description of her.

We started the hike up the Pinnacles around 10am. The walk was very enjoyable, rope bridges, fording streams and steps. Lots and lots of steps. Some might say an unnecessary number of steps. Greg had a new found vigour on starting the walk and proceeded to press onwards attacking the mountain in the midday sun, only stopping for water approximately once every 2 hours. This persistence eventually led to a minor outburst on Claire's part, exclaiming "it's 2 o'clock and I haven't eaten my lunch!" To which Greg tactfully replied "Claire, you sound like a moaning fat girl." It was at this moment that Claire realised she'd been tricked into going on fat camp!

After a few more hours hiking up rock steps, scree slopes and dirt tracks through flora, fauna and boulders, which at times reminded Greg of the Center Parcs Subtropical Swimming Paradise, they arrived at the Pinnacles Hut where they were going to spend the night before the final countdown/ascent. The hut has 90 bunks which are rarely ever half full, however we had decided to climb during the school trip period. 45 of the bunks were therefore filled with 14 year olds. Watching their social interactions and booty shaking to what kids nowadays call music made Greg decide that if he went back in time with the knowledge he now has he could manipulate the system and become one of the 'cool kids'. This theory was promptly disproved when Greg saw a 14 year old boy recklessly running down a gravel path and couldn't stop himself shouting out, "slow down...you'll hurt yourself!"

After a surprisingly good boil in the bag dinner it was time for bed at 8pm. Claire slept like a log. Greg however had a rather restless night, you know the type, one where something is playing on your mind. They both woke at 4.30am and set off on the rather dark final leg of the climb/clamber to the mountain-top. We won't bore you with the details but we reached the top, a question was asked (yes, a knee was taken) in the middle of a cloud and before getting blown off the top, we started the descent. We were both grinning like cheshirecats and Greg felt far more relaxed.

The walk down took a fair few hours itself, with aching knees and dying for a coffee we plodded on. Greg kept saying that they needed to get down quickly as he'd planned a surprise on the other side of the Coromandel. Greg expressed his concern that they had over exerted and would be too tired to enjoy the planned activity. Claire slowly became more and more concerned, what had he booked? Scuba diving? High ropes? And as her legs began to give way she prayed she wouldn't have to force herself into a wetsuit as that might just finish her off. Fortunately Greg took their exhausted bodies across the Coromandel to the Lost Spring Spa.

Greg had never had a proper massage before. The closest he'd come was being manhandled by an obese, hairy man in a Turkish bath...the bruises lasted for months. This experience was quite the opposite. After a two day hike up a mountain and an emotional roller coaster ride it was just what the doctor ordered. Claire's mind however was somewhat preoccupied with pity for the poor masseuses having to handle our disgusting feet, luckily they were distracted by the large shimmering object on her left hand. After the massage we lounged in the thermal pools with a pint of champagne each.

The remainder of our time in the Coromandel was spent in luxury tree house accommodation in the native bush surrounded by wildlife including the incredibly rare Kiwi birds who we heard calling to each other. We visited the famous hot water beach where you can dig into the sand to create a natural warm bath from the hot spring water running beneath the sand. Unfortunately the beauty of the spot was somewhat ruined as you couldn't move for tourists digging holes. We just stood and stared until some Japanese people decided where we were standing was the perfect spot for their hole and started manically digging all around us. Greg tried to stand his ground for as long as possible but felt it necessary to move after one of their spades nearly left him toeless. Fortunately we were only there to kill time until we went kayaking along the coast to Cathedral Cove. Crystal clear water, beautiful sunshine and more wild penguins. A couple of things made this trip even more unique; Hamish Startin, who Greg used to play rugby with at Cranbrook rugby club and the younger brother of Ben who Greg played rugby with at university, just happened to be in our kayak group. Also, at one stage we all held onto each others kayaks and the guide produced a large sheet of tarpaulin. We fashioned a sail using the paddles and managed to sail a raft of kayaks all the way home. A great end to a fantastic holiday, and so we continue our year of adventure, on what we now call our 'engagemoon'.