Monday 5th Nov

8.30am is the time for the coach to pick us up to go to Mercury Bay, so its a final goodbye to Auckland! While we were waiting for the coach, the weather was miserable and raining, just like UK but bit warmer, we would imagine!

Before leaving Auckland, we were taken to the top of Maugawhau (Mt Eden), one of 70 dormant volcanoes in the region. It was apparently the best spot in Auckland to get 360 degrees views of Auckland City. Unfortunately when we arrived, we couldn't see a thing! It was very misty and pouring down with showers! So to occupy us on the coach instead of getting off to have a look around, we had a mini game to play. We all had a kiwi Ex pass and the driver had mixed it up and gave to each person with the pass that don't belong to them. We had to find our pass by asking everyone till you get your own pass back. It was to break the ice with each other, or to waste time!

After that, we headed towards Thames to stop to get lunch and supplies. We both found a good food store that was so cheap so we stocked everything up!

Leaving Thames, we headed towards the Penisula over the Coromandel Ranges and passed through a little town called Tairua to do a brief spot of shopping.

We made our way to the nearest beach called Hot Water Beach, where you can dig a hole on the beach near the thermal outlet and soak in hot water. Unfortunately due to the poor weather conditions and the tides wasn't right, it was unaccessiable for us so it was out of the question.

So moving on to visit the Cathedral Cove. It was the volcanic formations and Cathedral shaped archway. It was a 1hr and 30mins return walk. It took us quicker to arrive to the Cove as most pathways were downhill, easy level of walking (or running(!)) We only had 2 hours to spare so we had to hurry by running down most of the time so we can make the most of the time on the beach. It was gorgeous but shame of the weather cos it would be a photographic scene! We didn't hang around there very long as we knew that it was going to be difficult to get back, especially with uphills this time!!

It was a exhausting walk. Our legs were killing us but good exercise and worth a walk in the end!

Another 40mins drive to arrive to our destination, Mercury Bay (Whitianga). We were meant to have a spare afternoon to do what we want but unfortunately we didn't arrive to the hostel till about 6pm or so, leaving us to be told that we had 20mins to get ready for dinner, Spagetti Bologense!

After that, we decided to do our laundry as they were overdue! And the hostel was the best one to do as it was cheap. It took us a good couple of hours to sort everything out. Finally we were able to chill out by playing pool and drinking a couple of beers (Oh and bit of cakes we bought earlier!)

We resorted ourselves to bed, in preparation to leave at 7.30am! *Groans* We are soooooooooooo desperate to have a good lie in!!!

So basically we haven't done anything much today, just on the coach most of the day!