Cycle: 18.4km

We had a fairly cruisy morning going for a gentle explore to a secluded beach just North of Papa Aroha, walking back to our campsite via the edge of the cliff. There was a nice swing rope and a bit of a wade across the creek to get back to the tent - all-in-all a very pleasant morning!

Our cycle was fairly short with one major hill, before a short very straight steep descent into Colville. I was pretty worried about having to come back up the steep section - it looked like the hardest thing we'd seen so far.

We stopped for a leisurely (and extended) lunch break at the fantastic world reknowned Colville Cafe. This is the last stop whilst heading North up to the tip of the Coromandel Peninsula, so we ate masses of their food, cups of tea and the biggest slices of cake in the universe - it's official. The store next door was a great organic shop, selling things like oats in bulk which seems to be the norm in New Zealand (Claire's just reminded me of their cool heart-shaped baskets!)

The rest of the cycle to Otautu Bay was nice cycling, although we hit the beginning of the unsealed roads, luckily just for a few km today. The road swept round several bays with beautiful views of the untouched beaches.

The campsite was ok, with fairly primitive facilities and annoying spikey things everywhere, but the beach setting was stunning. We went for a walk the whole way along the beach where we discussed how wonderful it is to be able to come on such an adventure as this, and also about our future plans.

A nice bloke called Keith had seen us walking and heard we were on bikes, so as we were pottering around our tent, he turned up with three beers and a couple of mince pies, saying: 'I thought I'd come and say hello, and prove to you that us Kiwis are a friendly bunch' - that they certainly are! We've experienced nothing but friendliness since we've left Auckland. Being on bikes seems to really make people friendly to us. We're not just another couple in a campervan, but some interesting people doing something a little different. Already I'm having a totally different experience to the last time I was in New Zealand (2000), but I guess some of that is being married (woo-hoo) and a little bit older.

We were lucky enough to eat our dinner to a beautiful sunset with the entertaining company of a crazy Keesha-like cat, who was happily playing with the sand, leaves, twigs and bits of seaweed whilst we ate!

Another great day!