Stray bus aka George the reindeer bus

Day 1 : Hahai

We left Auckland at 0730 and arrived at the holiday park in Hahai around 1500 after having a couple of stops for coffee and food shopping.

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TIP

Buy your food and alcohol before you arrive (pac n save in Thames) as it’s very expensive when you get to Hahei and not many shops around.

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We then went to hot water beach and spent an hour or so digging around in the sand and lounging in the fascinating hot water pools, you need to experience it to believe it! It can get up to 70+ degrees Celsius so make sure you find a half hot, half cold pool or it just gets a bit too much.

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TIP

Take a small spade with you as they can be pricy on the beach, a kiddies one will do unless you want to dig a Jacuzzi.

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Day 2

This was a ‘free day’ in Hahai. We walked from the hostel to cathedral cove which took a bit over an hour. The walk was picturesque; the cove and beach were lovely, luckily we caught it on a warm day so had a nice little sun bathe and swim.

Day 3: Raglan

About a 6 hour drive took us into Raglan town centre where we had a quick mooch around and then went to the beach for surfing. Danielle hired a board as she’s done it before and I had my first ever lesson. The water conditions were great and I managed to stand up a couple of times…just!

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TIP

Word of warning: there were loads of people in the lesson and not many instructors so you don’t get a lot of 1:1 attention unless you ask or look for it.

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That night we stayed in a really cool hostel up in the hills called Kauri lodge; quite far from anything so you’d need transport to get here.

They run a sunset yoga session on an amazing platform on the hill overlooking the sea. Definitely worth the trek, we didn’t do it but it looked beautiful.

If you want to see glow worms at the lodge they line the left mud bank after dark… such an amazing sight.