We have about a 5 hour journey to get here on the Nakedbus. The first leg of the trip was alright as we were on a normal coach but we then had to change half way and were stuck on a mini bus for 3 hours next to some of the most smelliest people I have encounted. Seriously are these people that lazy that they can't be bothered washing themselves in the morning?? The bus dropped us right outside our hostel, which was painted every different colour you can imagine, it looked like a bit of a dump when we first arrived so we weren't expecting great things from it. When we checked in though the woman upgraded us for free so we had another private room, which was really nice of her. The hostel was split into different cabins and each one had a private room and a dorm with there own private kitchen area and toilet. After we had all got checked in and settled we took a walk down to the town to have a look around. We didn't really know too much about this place as we had mainly come for the Hot Water beach but it is a nice little town and has some great views and beaches around. We went food shopping and was quite surprised at how low the prices were as we got told by everyone that New Zealand was expensive, so we treated ourselves and had a nice big fry up for tea!

Next day we had a bit of a lie in (first one in ages, such a hard life). We had planned to head to the Hot Water beach but hadn't realised that it was so far away. We could have rented out a bike to get there but it would still have been a hour and a half ride to get there and the same back so we left it. On the hot water beach you can dig your own hole in the sand and natural hot water will fill it up so you can make your own little hot spring but we found out that you can't dig till low tide which was at about 5:45 while we were here so it would have been pointless and cold, never mind. Instead we headed back down to the town to have a look round the part we didn't see yesterday. After a while though we just headed to the pub and had a couple of drinks before heading back to our room to watch a few films. The three people that were in our cabin in the dorm all checked out today and no one else checked in so it was like me and Jodie had our own little apartment, it was great.

We got speaking to one of the receptionists and they told us that there was a couple of small hikes just over the bay that led to some great beauty spots and good views so we had a crack at that. We had to get the 'ferry' (they called it a ferry but it was only 2 pound return and it was about the size of a large canoe!) over to the other side of the bay. We then took the 'easy' route that the receptionist had advised and in the end had to do a massive hill climbing hike! By the end of it Jodie was half dead and I wasn't much better. It was well worth it though, the first place we went to was a massive rock that was on top of the cliff and was a lookout across the whole town and the bay surrounding it. We could have stayed there for hours, it was so peaceful and the views were great plus Jodie looked as if she could have done with a nap after our little climb! The next place we went to was called Shakespeares cliff. We had to follow a dirt track across a beach and then up the side of a mountain. We thought that maybe the steep climb would only last a little while but no it took us up the entire mountain and then back down the other side! The views from the top were good though but not as good as the first look out. When we reached the road by Shakespeares Cliff we could have carried on and hiked a little bit more but I didn't really fancy carrying Jodie all the way back down! We followed the road all the way back down to the ferry and realised that where we were was only a 10 minute easy walk on the road, it felt like we had walked miles! damn mountian! After our hike we wanted to do absolutely nothing once we got back to the hostel so just spent the rest of the night watching films (and Australian X factor!)

Whitianga has been a nice little stop off, we didn't get to do the thing we came here for but we still had a good time here and seen some good things. We are now heading to Rotorua which we have been told stinks of rotten eggs but hopefully we get to do some zorbing so it should be worth it.