The beginning of a country-wide tour...

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On Saturday January 12th we left Auckland on our way to Mercury Bay, also known in the Maori language as Whitianga (fit-ee-anga). This was a long day, but one of the best so far... We stopped for breakfast in Auckland and went on to Mt Eden where we had the opportunity to take photos from the top. Mt. Eden is an inactive cone volcano. It gave us some really good views of the city! After that we got back on the bus for a ride to Thames where we stopped to get lunch supplies and anything else we would want for the afternoon. Once everyone had gotten something to eat, we got back on the bus and went to Cathedral Cove which was absolutely phenominal. We took a few photos and then hiked down to the beach... of course, it was more of a hike coming back... We spent a few hours at the beach before getting back on the bus to go the rest of the way to the small town of Mercury Bay.

Mercury Bay was gorgeous! I almost wish we spent some extra time there because it was such a charming little town. We basically were only there to sleep -- we had an early departure from the hostel to head toward Roturua. The hostel was really nice. It seemed to be run by two couples, and it was so clean and kept up. It also had a great kitchen and a working barbeque. I met two really cool Canadians who happened to be from McMaster Health Sciences (crazy!) and are travelling around until they start their exchange programs in Australia. We combined efforts for a barbeque that night... $8 got us loads of chicken wings, barbequed veggies and baked potato. It was actually too much food! After that, we all just hung out and played some pool until "lights out" (yeah, it was almost like a curfew!) and then got some sleep for our early morning wake-up!

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