Cycle: 35.2km

Today was a fairly easy day. We only had to endure about 3km of unsealed road before being greeted by wonderful sealed tarmacadam! Claire was so happy she wanted to get off her bike and kiss the asphalt Charlie Boarman-style. Feeling that our breakfast wasn't huge, stopped off at Colville Cafe for a lunch/tea/cake session. Again the food was excellent, and we bought a paper and relaxed for a couple of hours saving our legs for the forthcoming big hill.

I was very apprehensive about the hill. On the way down it a couple of days previously, I realised we'd not cycled up anything like this, and it looked fairly soul-destroying with a huge straight, very steep section. I shouldn't have been worried, as our pacing skills are rapidly improving and we both got to the top tired but unexhausted. I was feeling euphoric with relief and confidence about the rest of our trip!

Coromandel Town was a welcome site - we both feel very at home here. There's a nice vibe about the place. Our campsite was surprisingly nice. The facilities are the best we've seen yet with immaculate showers and toilets. The view isn't that great, but it's a pleasant place to base ourselves - unfortunately our current nemesis, the hill on the way to Whitianga, is visible from our pitch!

We nipped back to a couple of houses selling fresh vegetables and picked up some cheap supplies for dinner, before walking into town for a little internet checking. Our internet cafe staff started singing karaoke really, really badly, so we decided not to bother with a beer! We picked up some bottles of beer and decided to enjoy a drink over dinner. When we got back to our campsite, another cycle tourer arrived - Hans. He was Dutch and had just arrived from the first leg of his trip, which was through Tibet, Nepal and India! I was very glad to see he had Ortlieb panniers too, although his were somewhat dirtier than ours! He'd spent the day doing an 80km loop round the North part of the peninsula - hopefully we'll be up to those kind of distances soon.