We departed Auckland today to begin our journey on the Kiwi Experience and made our way to our first stop, Mercury Bay. En route we stopped off in Thames for Lunch. We made our way to the Coromandel Peninsula an area renowned for its lovely beaches. When we arrived we took an hour and a half walk to Cathedral Cove, a beautiful coastal area. The tide was coming in so we had some fun trying to miss the waves to get between each side of the arched shaped rock. We headed back up the steep heill before heading to our hostel, Turtle Cove, it was a lovely family run hostel with lovely rooms with an outside bar with a pool table and dart board. The kitchen was so homely I felt bad opening the cupboards as it felt like somebody elses home! Had a really nice evening catching up with Liv & Greg (two of the people from our Oz trip) and trying to beat Arber at darts.