Saturday 27th February

We woke up at 6.15am with our aim to watched the sunrise for 7am and visit hot water beach which was a short walk down the road. I didn't feel well in having a heavy head and blocked nose, I think I either caught something on the plane or got poorly from sleeping with the air con on cold in the hotel room. We'd rented a spade the evening before so wrapped up and walked down. By the time we got down there it was 6.45am and the tide was coming in. I was confused as I thought the lady had said that for sunrise the tide would be out but Nick said he knew we had to be there earlier - and with his time keeping skills we had missed the chance to dig a hole in the sand ourselves but were able to go in someone else's who were there. The water here was extremely hot - like what you'd have in a hot bath as there is volcanic rock underneath. It was lovely to be able to watch the sun rise, something I haven't yet done in either Asia or Australia despite the many sunsets I'd seen this was also stunning. I was pleased this was something you're not charged for and felt happy to have experienced it.

We made our way back to the campervan and made sausage sandwiches with a cup of tea before heading to our next activity - Cathedral Cove. We parked up at the top of a steep hill and took a long walk down. By the time we'd got there people had turned up but it wasn't too busy. Nick couldn't wait to get his top off in the sunshine and we both went for a swim in the chilling sea. The archway of the cove was like something you'd see on a postcard, the little area felt remote and it was lovely to relax lay on the beach. An hour later we decided to walk back, I felt really tired and my head was heavy I wasn't looking forward to the walk back in the heat.

We went on to drive to Waitomo Top 10 holiday park where it was less sunny and rain had started to drizzle but it didn't stop Nick messing around on the trampoline. There was a restaurant called, 'Huhu' that we went to for dinner with a stunning view out over the forest and delicious food. Afterwards we put The Hobbit on to begin watching the trilogy of films and got tucked up in bed to sleep.

xxx