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Tuesday 21st March 2017 Day 17 I woke up feeling terrible after the hike, my back was hurting more than anything. My knees and feet were surprisingly ok this morning but my back was really really sore. Andrew had more work on his visa to do so we went to a small cafe for breakfast, I had poached eggs and hash browns and andrew had beans and hash browns. We then had to make our way to a lawyers to get some of Andrew's paperwork stamped. The weather was scorching so we went for a $1 frozen coke, one of the things New Zealand does which I will miss a lot. I really didn't want to do a lot of driving today but there was nothing much for us to do so we decided to drive a long way to Egmont National Park which was a good two hours away. This was probably a really bad decision because my back was hurting a lot, and strangely it hurted more when I sat down. Half way there I had to pull over in tears for some ibrufen before we carried on the rest of the journey. When we were close to the campsite we could see beautiful views of Mount Taranaki, I had seen pictures of it in the past but it was a lot bigger in real life. We stayed at a paid campsite near the mountain, it was just an old couples home really and we parked in their garden. Chickens ran around freely. They charged us 12.50 each, toilets and showers were both included even though the toilets were creepy, and spidery. We cooked pasta for tea (as usual, it is the cheapest) and had an early-ish night. We intended too but the Milky Way was out so Andrew insisted on taking photographs. I stayed in the van though. As the night was full of stars and it was so clear I assumed the weather was going to be gorgeous tomorrow. So we could see the mountain properly.

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Monday 20th March 2017 After a sleepless night of me tossing and turning and worrying about the day ahead, Andrew's phone alarm went off. 6am. One hour until the shuttle picked us up to take us to the start of our hike. We headed to the kitchen to make some cheese on toast before putting our warm gear on and went for the shuttle. There was a shop open at the campsite we stayed at so I went in and bought myself a bottle of Vanilla Coke and a twix, I had to reward myself for the journey that was coming up! We got on the shuttle, had to sign our names on a sheet of paper and give our phone number in case of emergencies, also if we didn't return the shuttle driver would send the rescue team out for us. The hike started off ok, it was a gradual incline for the first hour and a half. It was the second step of the hike I was worried about. The Pinnacles hike we did I really struggled with, and my toe nails are still black from it now. This was a longer hike, and the website said *moderate to difficult*. The first hike (Pinnacles) said *low to moderate fitness*. That was a lie, so I was in a very bad mood and worried that I wasn't going to be able to manage. Part two came up, it was named the devil staircase. The name is in the title. The pain we felt in our legs and knees was excruciating. Every few steps I had to stop and breath. My breathing was heavy, due to the altitude and we were both cold. As soon as you think you've finished the stairs you turn around and there are a hundred more. At the top of the devil stair case there was a part called the red crater, it was next to Mount Doom, you had to walk quite steady before reaching the next climb. It wasn't a hike it was a climb and it was very scary. We were that high up the wind was almost knocking me over, our hands were like ice and Andrew had hold of me. If he hadn't I'd have been over the cliff edge. Up the last peak to the top was just rock climbing, difficult because the rocks were loose. Everybody was slipping and the wind was blowing sand in your face. Andrews legs were stinging as he wore shorts and the wind was that strong the sand was blasting at his legs. It literally took my breath away at some points. It was hard, very hard. We got to the top and there was an immediate steep drop you had to go down to reach the main point with the blue lakes. The rocks were even loser on here, people were slipping over, Andrew nearly fell a few times and your boots sink into the sand as you glided down. At the bottom it was breath taking, its hard to imagine there are blue lakes on the top of the mountain, it was so so nice. We stayed there for a while, had our sandwiches and carried on. We still had a long long way to go before we were back. Not only was the hike back down longer but it was harder. There was no dangerous parts, it was just a constant drop. Our knees felt like they were crushing, four hours it took us to get down, the longest four hours of our life. Every time we thought we were close we'd see a sign telling us how many kilometres were left. We were so relieved to see the car park. Andrew immediately had to lie down and put his head on his bag whilst we waited for the shuttle. The shuttles back were either at 2.30, 4 or 5.30. We got back at 2.35, typical! We can't have don't to bad to say we got back just after the first shuttle. 7 hours constant hiking, it was so so difficult. We were both hurting so much. After getting back to the campsite we showered and got in the van, we hadn't planned to stay here another night and there was no vacancies, I was gutted but I knew I had to drive. We set off, my feet and legs were excruciating, as was Andrew's. Two hours it took me to drive to Whanganui, we were both starving and treat ourselves to a KFC. We went to the closest campsite and my knees started to throb. I was so glad the hike was finished. The views of mount doom and the blue lakes were absolutely beautiful. It was worth it, but the hardest thing I've done.

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Sunday 19th March 2017. Andrew woke up mega early this morning to catch sunrise on Lake Rotorua. He left me in bed ( what an angel ), and I got up at about 7.30am when he returned. Whilst being in Rotorua Andrew wanted to take another trip to the Redwood forest. We went there on New Years but Andrew wasn't satisfied. We did a 4K walk around the woods whilst Andrew took some pictures. We then drove to another place we have already been to called Huka Falls, were the first water is bright blue, the weather was so hot. We went into the cafe at the falls and then almost had the car battery die on us again, but he started after a couple of times. In Taupo we then found a 'real fruit ice cream' stall. We stopped for one, sat in the sun for an hour and headed off to Whakapapa Village resort. We were doing a massive hike the day after ( which admittedly I was dreading with every bone in my body ). We had to pay for a very expensive campsite as we had to pay for a shuttle to the start of the trek. We had pasta for tea, watch game of thrones and went to sleep.

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Saturday 18th March 2017. Day fourteen Not much happened on this day except for lots of driving. We had finished the east coast but before leaving Napier we met up with one of Andrew's friends from Australia called Javiera for a coffee. We then drove a long way to Rotorua, stopped again for another drink and wifi as Andrew had work to do on his laptop. As Rotorua is a very touristy town there was no free campsites and the cheapest one available costed us 34 dollars for the night. Rip off. Especially when all we do is park our van on a piece of grass and sleep. Nevermind.

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Friday 17th March 2017 Day Thirteen - Napier 7am our alarm went off and we were up and raring to go. We weren't too far from Napier, we stopped for petrol (they gave us 6cent a litre off because we were English) and arrived there bright and early. I was excited to get to Napier, I have enjoyed the east coast but I found it difficult driving through forests and seeing nothing and nobody. Andrew told me a lot of it was built by English in the 1930s, I was looking forward to it, maybe it would cure my homesickness. It was a beautiful looking city right on then ocean, it wasn't very English looking to me (I think English buildings are big bricks and stones) but it was beautiful and I really liked it here. We arrived there just after 8am and we went to a cafe called St Germain. It was very English in there, flowery plates like my gran would have and old paintings and pictures everywhere. We spent some time walking around the city, had a toastie for lunch and looked out on the ocean. Cape Kidnappers was a place on our list for Napier although what didn't realise was it was a 5 hour return walk, for people with moderate fitness. I do not have moderate fitness and my big toes are still black and blue from the last big hike we did. If we did this hike I definitely wouldn't be ok for Tongariro Crossing next week (another hike we will do). I really want to be able to do this one. Although Napier is a very beautiful city and we could spend hours walking around in the sunshine appreciating all the English touches, there wasn't much around for us to do. Close to Napier is a town called Hastings, we decided to drive there and didn't even park up and get out of the car. It was bland. There was absolutely nothing there. We went to get an ice cream and sit outside in the sunshine, before heading to our campsite for the night. The showers were actually clean too! HALLELUJAH!!

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Thursday 16th March 2017 Day twelve - Gisbourne - Lake Tutira After the disaster last night I decided I'd be happier to not even enter the bathroom to pee, brush my teeth or anything. I climbed from the back seat to the front seat and we set off on a huge journey to Gisbourne. The city was ok, a very rubbish English looking town, nothing much there but some saver shops, charity shops and cheap looking takeaways. It was nice to see some sort of normal civilisation because 99% of people we have seen doing the east coast have been very abnormal. We walked around for a few minutes, got on some wifi, went to the supermarket but there wasn't really much to do. One thing we had heard about Gisbourne was a waterfall close by. I say close but it was a good 25 miles away, but in New Zealand 25 miles is close. We decided to do it anyway! It was so worth it. Hands down the most beautiful waterfall we have seen here yet. It was massive! We stayed for a while there, Andrew yet again took some amazing pictures and we looked for a campsite for the evening. The closest free one was 119 MILES away. It was half way between Gisbourne and our next destination. We did it. It was another long long drive, Andrew spent half of the journey 'mooing' and 'baaing' out of the window at local animals which made the time go slightly quicker aswell as our playlist in the car. I was dreading the campsite after the last two, it does have a long drop toilet and I will have to use it but on the better hand the camp site is on a beautiful lake with swans and sheep surrounding.

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Wednesday 15th March 2017 Day Eleven - spontaneous driving down the east coast. Last night we stayed at the scariest campsite imaginable. I explained why in my earlier blog but even in the morning when the sun was shining, it was just as scary. We paid for this campsite as there was no free ones nearby and we got facilities such as showers and a small kitchen area included. I couldn't even bring myself to shower, there was bugs and spiders in the shower. I felt like I was in a horror movie. I used baby wipes Andrew showered, he doesn't get bothered like I do although he still admits it was creepy. When I got on the road away from the site I was so relieved, although everything around me still felt creepy. We kept driving and driving and driving and seeing absolutely nothing but the beautiful Pacific Ocean. Why would we complain? We started to complain when we drove about 90 kilometres and the petrol was at empty. We have 6 free call-outs from the AA but we had no phone service, there was no houses about no shops to ask. I could have imagined us being stuck here for a while. Tyson managed to get us a little bit further where we found a little macadamia nut cafe in the middle of nowhere. We went in and asked where the nearest petrol station was, the old man said about 20 minutes away. Tyson definitely wouldn't get us there, the old man offered us five litres of petrol that he had spare, we accepted, paid him and had a drink at the little cafe and set off on our way. 40 minutes later we still couldn't find a petrol station, after he told us 20 minutes. The red light came on again and we just carried on for as long as possible. I don't know if someone up above is looking out for us but we seem to have the best luck, just as the van was about to die we found a village with a petrol station. We had driven roughly 150 kilometres without seeing anything. We filled up and sat there in relief. Andrew laughs with nervousness but I was petrified and felt sick genuinely don't know what we would have done. Apart from one shop and a petrol station this little village had nothing, it started raining but it was only midday and we didn't know what to do. East cape is an hour away so Andrew decided we were going to do it. We have been to Cape Reinga at the top of New Zealand so why not go as east as we can. Off we drove along the worst road ever, right on the edge of a drop next to the ocean, horses and cows on the sides of the road but we managed to get there. I looked up at east cape and what was there? Steps! Loads and loads of steps, my worst nightmare. It was so windy and cold but we got to the top and the view was lovely. After driving back down the horrible road we had to drive another hour and a half to a camp site half way towards our next destination. It was paid again and our only option. Whenever we enter a new campsite I check the toilets and showers, it had a spider in it and bugs again. Andrew offered to take me into the men's but I had a panic attack and cried for a while. Is hard when you have a phobia of public toilets and spiders and it comes together. 223 kilometres we drove this day, and saw absolutely nothing hardly. Today has been difficult.

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Tuesday 14th March 2017 Day Ten - Whakatane Yet again we were up bright and early and raring to go on another adventure. The sun was shining the shorts went on and we went to the closest cafe to use their wifi and then set off. The first stop of the day was a beautiful waterfall in Whakatane called Te Wairere. It was beautiful. We were meeting Josh and Blaire there and also walked around the city. Shortly after we decided to do a walk up to a sea view through the forest, I thought it was going to be a short walk. I walked like a snail all the way up really irritating Andrew but we did make it to the top and the views were spectacular, probably one of the best views I've seen. It was definitely worth the walk ( even though I told Andrew it wasn't, I hate walking ) The weather today was scorching, the van was red hot meaning all our food and drinks were red hot. We can't have it all ways though we'd much rather have it hot. Andrew thinks he doesn't need sun cream and has burnt so he now has a t-shirt tan ( he will listen to me one day ) and our feet are covered in bites from sand flies. We parted ways with Josh and Blaire, and we drove further down the east coast to a place called Opotiki although the campsite we found was a little far out. The reviews on the app we have about camp site were mixed but we thought we'd give it a whirl anyway. The camp site was in a really lovely spot but the woman who owns it is weird. It's a mess the office was a hoarder of rubbish and the first thing Andrew said when he got into the car after paying was 'she's definitely a witch'. I felt very uncomfortable staying here. There was us and another couple staying here from Czech Republic who seemed nice. The rest of the caravans on the camp site were old rusty and dirty, like trampy people permanently lived in them, eurgh it's giving me the shivers just thinking about this place. We made Alfredo and walked to the closest beach for sunset. I'll be happy to leave this camp site that's for sure.

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Monday 13th March 2017 Day Nine - Omanawa Falls - Ohope beach. After a sleepless night due to the heat, we got up with hope of the weather improving from the thunderstorms so we can head out and have a productive day.. Our plan is to do a lot of the east coast this week although Andrew didn't want to set off until he saw a certain waterfall called Omanawa Falls. The track to the waterfall has actually been closed down as it is too dangerous and a boy died two years back. Travellers have written about doing it but Blaire and I were not comfortable, and after an attempt at climbing the the first wall the lads decided it was best not to either. Thankfully! We managed to get a photograph from the top, although Andrew wasn't happy he couldn't get snaps from the bottom. Plenty more opportunities for him though, id rather have him here than crushed on the floor from falling. Before the long drive to Whakatane, which was our next stop, we stopped off at the supermarket to stock up for the next few days. At this point Andrew was that hungry he was ruthless, if I hadn't have been there he'd have spent his whole bank account on food. I stopped him though, then he laughed at his hungry self. It took us an hour an a half to get to Whakatane and we headed straight to a beach called Ohope beach. Signs say 'New Zealand's most loved beach' and we were really excited to see it. Blaire caught a seagull murdering a fish so she chased it for a while, we all paddled and chilled out for a bit in the sunshine before heading to the campsite. A very dated campsite, even the showers were in a little metal hut. Eurgh. The campsite costed us 18 dollars and it is about a 30 second walk from the beach, Andrew got some beautiful sunset pictures and we relaxed. The weather has thankfully improved for us though and fingers crossed we have sun for the rest of the week.

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Sunday 12th March 2017 Day eight- Mt Maunganui town So it's official that we have coped a whole week into our travels. We are both still alive, still well and fed and we are enjoying every minute. It has been difficult but we are still learning every day and we are facing challenges every day. Today the rain was horrendous. Towns were flooding, you couldn't even walk in it. We were hearing of floods in Auckland and we thought it was best to have a chill day. We spent a day chilling in a small town, wandering through the little shops. (Persuading Andrew not to buy himself a brand new wardrobe). We met Blaire and Josh at a camp site and had an early night. The weather is supposed to brighten up tomorrow, rice and beans for tea and Game of Thrones again.

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Saturday 11th March 2017 Day Seven - Tauranga. After a sleepless night due to the noise of the storm on the van I woke up, and took advantage of the hot shower included in the site. Since being in New Zealand neither Andrew or I have seen weather as bad as it was this morning. Every time we opened the car door the rain blew inside wetting our bedding. We couldn't cook. We had to run to the toilet. We literally couldn't do anything in this weather. Our only option was to go sit in a coffee shop, warm up and take advantage of their wifi. A couple of hours later we did some basic boring day to day jobs ( go buy pasta for tea and baby wipes for when we can't shower ). The weather didn't clear up massively but it stopped raining, it was still only mid day so we decided to drive to a nearby place called Mount Maunganui. We thought it was just going to be a mountain there but it's a gorgeous town with a lot of surfing and cute little shops. Andrew wanted to climb the mountain so on my walking boots went, again! After sweating profusely yet again I made it to the top, I will be fit after this trip! The views were incredible. It's annoying because around Tauranga there are no free camp sites, meaning again we had to pay $10 each. We also paid $12 to do our laundry, it was needed though. The camp site is lovely with extremely clean showers, the woman next to us in the million dollar looking RV gave us some Parmesan for our pasta and we settled again for an early night.

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Friday 10th March 2017 Day six - Hamilton - Tauranga Phone company plans in New Zealand aren't great so we decided to wake up bright and early to get to a cafe for coffee and wifi so we could phone home. Obviously we didn't check the wifi before we ordered and it didn't work so we trekked into the city to find a free wifi box before heading off to the Botanical Gardens in Hamilton.. The botanical gardens were amazing. They had different sections, set up like a maze, to show different country's Gardens. England, Japan, Chinese, Italian, Indian and Maori. The work that must have gone into these gardens is ridiculous, we had a lovely couple of hours walking around the gardens. AND IT WAS FREE. Bonus! Between Hamilton and Tauranga we found a campsite, that cost us $10 each again. It was beautiful. Mclaren Falls park. As soon as we got there Andrew got over excited and decided to start throwing bread at me, meaning about 20 ducks started chasing me around the park. We started cooking super noodles but realised I had parked the van on a slant and Andrew went to reverse it slightly. What hadn't I done? Turned the lights off therefore the battery in the car had died. It started pelting it down and it really wasn't what we needed. Another couple of travellers tried to help bump start the car but it was far to heavy (probably with all Andrew's belongings inside) haha. Luckily the park ranger came (sort of like a security guard who takes the payments) and he had jump leads and with great difficulty started the van. What a nightmare. This camp site has unlimited free hot showers so after being drenched wet through we decided to shower. Sat all scrunched up in the back of the van trying to towel dry my hair I flung my head back and absolutely pelted my head. That was it then, me in hysterical tears for a good hour. I really did hurt my head, but I think I was more upset and frustrated at the lack of room we have in the van. It really is difficult but every day is fun and a challenge. I've just got to be careful in the future, no more banging my head and no more leaving the car lights on. Oops.

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Thursday 9th March 2017 Day five - Panmure - Hamilton We woke up quite surprised as the weather forecast had said thunderstorms but it was lovely. We sat on a random park bench with our cooker and started the day off with beans on toast :) Andrew washed his hair again in a public bathroom sink and we set off on our way to Hamilton to spend another day with Josh and Blaire.. It took us two hours to get there, I got stressed trying to park. Surprise Surprise. We bought a cheap lunch in a food court and headed straight to Lake Rotoroa to meet Josh and Blaire. The lake was beautiful, the weather was hot and Andrew took a few photographs whilst I chilled out in the sunshine, getting bit by mosquitos as usual. After a few hours there we decided to take a quick trip to the supermarket and head to the next free camp site. Which was 1 hour and a half away. I drove for 40 miles and saw nothing but cows and about two farms, its days like this when you don't realise how big the country is and how quiet it is, especially compared to England. The campsite was within a forest and we parked next to a river, it was beautiful but we did get bit off everything. We made a stir fry with a Malaysian peanut satay sauce!

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Wednesday 8th March 2017 Day four - Raglan-Auckland-Panmure (a productive day) When you are living in a van that doesn't fit half of your stuff in, you really do have to think about everything you wouldn't normally. Last night we stayed in a campsite which we had to pay for, $10 each but you could get a hot 3 minute shower for an extra $1 so it was well worth it! The weather was horrific, it absolutely pelted it down. How do you cook? You can't. How do you dry your towels after the hot shower you've just paid for? You can't! So after a crappy cheese sandwich and no breakfast we decided to start the day off paying $2 at the Laundrette to dry our towels and then bought ourselves some breakfast. We shouldn't do that, we aren't 'Glamping'. We are trying to live cheap and spend as little as we can. All day the weather has been horrible, all we had planned though was to buy a new cooker, pick up Andrew's passport and stop by the old flat for a package. Boring but essential day. After feeling terribly guilty about buying breakfast we decided to go to the closest free campsite and cook some $1 noodles. So the brand new cooker we bought I ended up putting it down in bird poo. Why am I so clumsy? And then during the romantic noodle cooking in the middle of a car park it started to throw it down.. Andrew's exact words 'I've never felt more like a peasant' So we quickly ate the noodles and decided today we are calling it quits. We got in bed and Andrew introduced me to Game of Thrones.

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Tuesday 7th March 2017 Day Three.. Raglan. What an amazing sleep we had, after a couple of hard and stressful days we put our heads down at 10pm and woke up fresh at 7.30am.. I say fresh, but I still felt disgusting. I decided to wash my hair in a cold public tap and convinced myself for a good ten minutes it had given me brain freeze. Nevermind, I still hadn't showered and washed but at least my hair was clean. Due to complications with Andrew's passport still being at immigration we decided to come to Raglan, stay here and drive back to Auckland tomorrow evening ready to pick up his passport and set off on our journey for good. Andrew and I have been to this town once before and immediately fell in love with it. It's small and full of funky little shops we could get lost in for days on end, there was a bohemian shop I loved and wanted various things from, but we are being good with money so I resisted! We hadn't eaten breakfast as our portable cooker was broken and Andrew was craving coffee so we decided to go to a cafe. Our garlic bread with cheese come out COVERED in rosemary! WHO PUTS ROSEMARY ON GARLIC BREAD???? I was so mad. This is like the garlic bread coming out with onion in for Andrew. Can you imagine how mad he'd be? Andrew ate it and we went to a local bakery so I could get something small so I didn't go hungry. After a walk by the ocean we decided to find the closest campsite to us. There was shower facilities, $1 for three minutes and clean toilets. I was happy here although it did cost us $20 to stay here, being able to shower in hot water and clean ourselves felt good though. The weather has been our friend for the last couple of days, it's been scorching, today the heavens decided to open and it chucked it down. This just meant a cheese sandwich for dinner and a film in bed.

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Monday 6th March 2017. Day Two..Pinnacles Hike After vaguely hearing Andrews alarm go off I knew it was the time I was dreading the most. The time he was waking me up to do a hike. 1.45am... I was in a terrible mood, I couldn't find my tablets I hadn't slept and I was so mad that Andrew wanted me to hike at this time, but I knew how much he wanted to do it so my walking boots went on. I really didn't want to disappoint Andrew but for days before this hike I was panicking about whether I was physically capable of doing it. So we set off, jumping rivers, barely seeing where we were going my legs started to burn. I tried my best to keep quiet and not moan and I'm sure I did well for the first couple of hours. It got to the last couple of hours of the 3hour50minute walk and there was hundreds of steps to go up. I knew 7.5kilometres was quite a fair way, but it didn't hit me until this point that we were going completely uphill right to the peak. As disgusting as this sounds my hair was dripping with sweat, my head was wet, my clothes were wet. This hike had taken everything out of me. I only realised how high we were when the freezing cold hit me, it was crazy because we were so used to being hot and sweaty but the weather just changed. I'd not felt cold like it. The sunrise finally came up and it was beautiful, knowing Andrew was happy was worth it. Not to chat on and moan about the hike any longer but the way down was 10 times harder, I cried with pain in my legs and feet, it took us a lot longer to get down (I admit it was my fault, but the pain was excruciating). It's only when we reached the van and set off to the supermarket to get water and food that it hit Andrew. His face dropped and I knew he was in pain with his feet and his shoulders because of his bag. He insisted on spending the rest of the day without any shoes on, even though the weather is still scorching. It was quite amusing to see him hopping up and down the car park at the supermarket though because his feet were burning on the floor. We set off driving to the camp spot for the night so that we could relax and have an early night. Many of the roads in New Zealand are long and straight, and I could feel my eyes closing with exhaustion so we stopped for a nap. A few hours later we arrived at the free campsite, it was like a breath of fresh air. We were right next to the ocean with a fantastic view of Coromandel, the toilets were proper toilets. HALLELUJAH! And there was a tap, so we could at least brush our teeth and wash up our plates from yesterday.. One highlight of this day though which I have to mention, is the fact Andrew went to the toilet for a number 2. Fair enough men take a long time, but this was strangely long. I stuck my head in the men's toilet shouted 'Andrew are you ok' - shortly after he came wandering out and admitted freely he just fell asleep on the toilet. What an idiot.l

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Day one of the big trip. New Zealand - Coromandel After a rather stressful morning of trying to pack the last six months of our life into a van, including a mattress that doesn't fit into the van we were ready to set off. Andrew was excited, I was nervous about being homeless for the first time in my life but we were so ready for this trip. After telling ourselves the day before 'no more Maccies' we were both absolutely starving with two days of non stop packing and cleaning so we started the day off with a Maccies (why not). We had been to Coromandel before but wanted to go again to see Blaire and Josh as we might not see much of them as they aren't setting off properly for a few more weeks. It took a solid three hours to drive there, my poor legs were aching already. We took a trip to Pak n Save to buy a few bits for our tea and to keep us energised for when we do the dreaded hike in the morning. We intended to go to Cathederal Cove, but found a stunning beach called Hahei Beach. It is definitely the most beautiful beach I've seen yet in New Zealand, and there are some beautiful beaches. Andrew decided to tell me that sharks and killer whales have been spotted in this beach (sometimes I wish he'd keep his mouth shut), but Blaire kept the vibe positive by stating 'the kayakers will die first'. The weather was scorching, we had our swimming gear on so why not. We ran into the sea and had a gorgeous swim, the water was the clearest I've seen it and the white soft sand was just amazing, it felt like we could have been in Thailand. As we knew we were up early (understatement) for a hike we decided to make our way to the campground to get settled, eat dinner and get ready for bed. Another hours drive later we made it to the camp site, we had to pay $13 each and it was an absolute shit hole ( sorry for swearing Grandma if you read this ). Me and Andrew were expecting to be able to shower at this site, NOPE. There wasn't even access to water so we couldn't brush our teeth, wash up our plates or fill up our water bottles. All we could do was sit in a field and go to the disgraceful 'long drop' which smelt genuinely like something had died in there. Long drops are one of my biggest fears of this trip, the stench firstly makes me want to vomit, but the fact that everybody's poo and pee is down that hole, creatures could be down there and bite your bum! I will do everything in my power to avoid using them, so I insisted on peeing on the floor, it's good for the environment anyway. I think. It was 10pm and we decided to put our heads down ready for the big day ahead tomorrow. Sleeping was impossible on this night though due to the copious amounts of Mosquitos and the heat was just ridiculous.