NEW ZEALAND-AUCKLAND TO MERCURY BAY TO ROTORUA!

On sat March 15th we began our Kiwi tour...our driver was "Cheese" we headed to a towen in Mercury Bay called Whitianga. All "WH" are pronounced 'F'. Try pronouncing a place in the east of the North island called WHAGATANE! On our way there we stopped at Cathedral Cove named due to the shape of the rocks there, check out the photos and you'll see. It was a 45 min walk from where we got off the bus....it was a bit of an overcast day and the waves were really rough. Some people kayak to here on a good day. The walk was all we got up to here then another 45 min walk back!In the eve we stayed at a hostel called turtle cove and had spaghetti bolognase for $7, we wangled a caravan to ourselves instead of a dorm and it worked out cheaper so we were happy. Later we headed to the local pub, some strange 1s in there, but amusing. They a bit of an early st Patrick's Day celebrations going on. On SUN we were on the coach by 7.30am! & we headed to Rotorua. On the way here we went to a Maouri intro thing about how they first arrived in New Zealand etc....very educational! Also, we went Luge-ing here! It was awesome, just Carl, Pen and driver Cheese (all other 25 people on the coach wern't interested and went water sledging...we went for the cheap option) Luge-ing is like a sledge with bike handles and you go really fast dopwn a windy long track down a mountain, it can be quite dangerous but also so much fun as you can race each other...the photos where we have helmets on is the luge-ing. We stayed at Base Hot Rocks hstel and had our own room with kitchen and bathroom...it was like a penthouse suite compared to other people's rooms!In eve we went for drinks at Lava Bar next door. Most other did a Maouri evening, but it was quite expensive so we opted out.