The day after Boxing Day we left Shelly Beach and returned to Tide Water in the town center. We were meant to go down to Thames for the next few days before New Year but non of us wanted to leave Coromandel because it was so nice! Once we had set up we drove back to hot water beach (as promised). It took around an hour and a half to get there. When we arrived we hired a spade and set out to the part of the beach with the springs. It wasn't hard to find as there was a crowd of people just on one particular area of the beach! We had to dig around for a while to find some hot water but when we did eventually find some it was bottom burning!!! We dug a hole for ourselves and sat in it for a while until two girls came along and sat in it too. I didn't really mind but they didn't ask and then they turned around and said it should be deeper! I thought this was fairly rude as Neil had dug the hole and they just came and sat in it then complained! We stayed in the pool for a little longer chuckling at all of the people who came to put their feet in and then jumped around like idiots when they felt how hot it was! We cooled down in the sea before heading back to Coromandel.

On Saturday we hired some bikes from the campsite and rode 5km out of town to Long Bay Beach. When we got there it was fairly busy but nice. We had lunch which was still left overs from Christmas day before riding another 10km to another beach in the opposite direction! We stayed on the beach for about an hour before heading back. The bike ride was really nice but i think anyone who wants to cycle around Newzealand (and yes, we have met a few) are crazy! There are so many hills! Don't think Rach really enjoyed it that much. She was cycling in flip flops and now has some nice bruises on her legs from where her feet kept slipping off the pedals! Oops.