Today we travelled to the Coromandel which is the chosen holiday destination of New Zealanders as well as tourists. We stayed at a place called Hot Water beach which was one of the beaches around the point, along with, Hahei Beach with its famous bays and coves most notably Cathedral Cove which we are going to visit this week.

I got to take my first trip in the Camper Van - very nice indeed and brilliant to be a passenger in, you get the odd wave and nod but mainly people just stare at you, and here Chris was telling me ''it's not a vanity car, but its pretty good really'' or words to that effect! Still it was a lovely drive down and we saw a few muddy ponies along the way too which is just an added bonus. Chris is so far refusing to let me add to Steph's Drive lots of Big Engined Adventure, by mentioning something about insurance and what not, but I shall continue with a gentle prod every now and again just to see if I can move it 5 metres up the drive way or something (no reversing for me on Jac & Dales driveway though - don't fancy that at all!)

En route to Coromandel we stopped at a Pak 'n' Save (supermarket) for supplies as we had decided that as we were there for 3 nights we would split into pairs and take it in turns to cook - Chris and I were the last to plan what we wanted to cook so we had a little chat and decided on making Lamb burgers with wedges, salsa and raita dips. Picky food. Menu sorted we went inside to the meat counter - no Lamb. Crap. Ok new plan, Beef Burgers!! Sorted.

When we got to the Hot Water Beach, we found the Batch (cottage, holiday home, etc) with no trouble at all and when I walked in I was amazed to find that it was nothing like what I had expected (here is me imagining something not too far off a cottage, UK style when I am confronted with a cliff top, beach/sea view, apartment style place with floor to ceiling windows on one side an outdoor seating area with BBQ and a separate living annex for 'visitors' as well as split level kitchen/dining/living areas in the main part of the batch. Very nice indeed!

We arrived shortly after lunch time, and just had a bit of food before getting bits and pieces unpacked and heading down to the beach for a little investigation. The beach itself was lovely and the sand was made up of lots of little bits of shells and was very colourful indeed!

We headed back up to the batch and started to play a few games before dinner (Jac & Dale were cooking on the first night - fish pie!) where I introduced everyone to Pseudonyms and Put & Take which was a great laugh.

The Fish Pie was yummy and the pressure is on for Chris and I for tomorrow night...