Cycle: 38km

We were both feeling pretty tired, so got up fairly late. There had been a huge rainstorm in the night so we were feeling a bit miserable and damp. We had been planning to explore the far North-East of the Coromandel Peninsula and have a look at Otama and Opito bays, but weren't feeling too inspired in the rain. We were also feeling a bit unsure as to how we could best utilise our time between Sandra (Mama B) and Tony's visit, Mary's (Mama J) visit, and the gap in the middle. Over breakfast, however, we had a total brainwave about what to do, and decided to cycle to Whitianga and go to an internet cafe and try and sort things out.

Our original plan had been to look around somewhere accessible from Auckland in the two or so weeks inbetween the Mama trips, but we were stuck as to what we could do in that kind of a time frame. Our new plan was to change our return ferry trip to Coromandel Town to just after the Mama B trip and then bust it round the East Cape all the way to Napier in the gap. We booked a bus to take us back to Auckland in time for the Mama J arrival and a return bus back to Napier for the 3rd of February - we can even take our bikes on the buses! Pure genius! We've set ourselves up for some serious cycling, but are both looking forward to the challange. It means we're right back on track for getting to the South Island by mid to late February.

After sorting all that out in Whitianga we had a glass of white wine to celebrate our new plans and finally working out a way of using our time really well!

Then it started to rain.

It didn't really stop raining for about 20 hours... By this time we were getting a bit fed up with our Kuaotunu campsite, which we felt just wasn't being maintained that well. All in all, we were looking forward to getting dry and back to Auckland and meeting up with Mama B and Tony.