We managed to find the hot springs by accident, just roaming around the rocks and stepped on a bloody boiling hot bit of sand where hot water was bubbling through! Then all the other tourists looking around for hot water spotted us jumping up and down to stop our feet burning and came over to nick our spot!!

Mark was very brave and dug himself a pool and jumped in in his shorts -as it was actually freezing cold on the beach, I just warmed up my toes! It was quite a strange sensation having boiling water come up in the sand next to where you were sitting, and the smell of eggs was horrible!! I took some more beach pictures for you Auntie Beryl! Funnily enough the couple in the pool next to us were from Whitefield! We told them to wave at you, Nan, next time they drove past your house. He was saying that he drinks in the Horseshoe pub a lot! Strange coincidence eh?!

The beach was fantastic, really long stretches of sand, I bet in the summer it is heaving there. We have found everywhere to be really quiet, but I suppose it is out of season really. All the pubs close at about 8.00pm so you have to get in there
early! One night near here, as we were walking back from the pub , we stopped on a little jetty to look at the yachts and could see loads of fish jumping out of the water, then suddenly a baby seal appeared from nowhere to chase all the fish around. It was amazing to watch him zooming around, we both stood there for ages!

When we made it to Whangatane, we stopped for a look round, but like I said everything is so quiet that most of the shops and restaraunts are closed so we just had a quick lunch and drove on to Tauranga, where we are now. 

I really like it here, it is a bit bigger than some of the towns we have seen so far, and there is loads to do and see, and a 20 km strecth of beach! Yesterday we climbed Mount Maunganui ( an extinct Volcano) which was pretty tough going near the top. It took about 40 mins of hard slog to get to the top, but as usual the views made it worthwhile. We were both sweating like mad and had to strip down to the bare minimum to cool off.  On the way back down we saw a few lambs that had just been born wobbling around on the grass, very cute!  After the mammoth climb we treated ourselves to an afternoon in the outdoor heated swimming pools, with jacuzzis and jets etc, which I recommend if you ever make it to Tauranga!

 Today ( thurs) I think we will just be looking around town, to pick up some books/magazines to read when we are in the van, and maybe moving on towards Gisbourne/Napier later tonight. The Bay of Plenty (where we are at the moment) was somewhere we thought we might want to live, so hopefully we will like it here.  So far New Zealand has been amazing, so Im sure we will find somewhere we love..

Anyway hope you are all well, speak soon

love Gill and Mark

xoxo