Hahei

Hahei was a lovely surprise. It was obviously fate that the car was b*****ed etc. The beach was so white and the water so clear. We were camped just behind the dunes. It took about one minute untill we were on the beach with our lunch and snorkel gear. We barely had time to let luch go down before me and em were eger to get in the water. We went down to the far left hand side of the beach where thre were lots of rocks. We got in being wary of the tide and rocks and were away. It was so much clearer here. I felt so small, and everything seemed so big. We saw cushion starfish, a shoal of yellow eyed fish and a pipe nosed eel type fish. It was great!!

When we got out we headed back along the beach past a rope swing where you lanch yourself off steps in the rock. I had to jump off the swing though elce i would have been squashed on the return! The rocks are so soft people carved their names in them. We then got back to the car and headed off to Hot Water beach.

HOT WATER BEACH

As the name suggests you would expect to have a beach of hot water. But no. There are thermal springs that flow from the rock and the aim of the game is to dig your own sand spa pool. There are many complication to this as we found out;

First off you have to dig at low tide so you can enjoy your hard work. We arrived at such time (4:15pm) and hired a spade from the shop where they required you to bring it back for 5! so we guessed after the walk across the beach, digging and back we had about one min to enjoy the pool. We didnt have to worry about this tho, because when we got on to the beach it was swarming with about 100 other people. As you can see from other photos, beaches arnt that busy and you cant swim at hot water either. When we got to the rocks it was a case of dont even bother to try and find the hot water. It runs under the sand you see, and in actual fact there is not many places you can get the hot spings. So it was a case of a few peoloe with smug faces sitting in steaming hot swimming pools, lots in lukewarm pools packed in like sardines and the rest of us milling round like idiots thinking ' this just aint going to happen'. Despite this me and em wernt going to give in. We decied it would be best to keep the spade and come back the next morn at low tide (5:20am) and to hell with this tourist bunch. So we smuggled the spade ( its quality wood and metal you know) back to the car with a knowing smugness. we drove on.

Gem Stone Bay

We thought we were going to Cathedral Cove which is the most photographed place on the Coromandel featured in all the travel books. As it happens it was a 45 min walk so me and em decided we would go down to Gem Stone Bay Marine Reserve and do the snorkel trail instead. The view was amasing at the top of the path and after the 10 min walk were were at a tiny bay that was all boulders and sea week. Now i hate seaweed so it took lot for me to get in. One all kitted up we we in the water and negotiating our way around the rock and weed. We saw butter fish which seemed to folow us. They were quite big and had like blue with orange spots. I think they liked us. We made our way over out to the bouys which had stuff written on them about the sea life- Handy, as it told us the jellyfish like the weed round here. There was also a tiny silver fish sheltering behind the bouy. I think he was lost. Ont he swim back in i saw a group of cuttle fish all tranlucent and looking at me in a line. One girl said she saw stingrays!! It was really enjoyable and confidence building for us as we went out quite deep. tired and wet now. Back for tea and a night walk on the beach, early nite for early morning.

HOT WATER BEACH AGAIN

I woke early and raring to go as it was so light. The sun was rising over the hill as we got in the car and sped off. There were already a few others on the beach at 6:40 with the same idea. It was quiet tho and we could get digging space. We hit warm water and got digging. Byt he time we ahd dug a shallow pool the sater as boiling. One guy couldnt get in his pool as it was so hot- right over the spring i guess. Ours turned out pretty darn good if only ankle deep. It smelt sulphurey too. So we sat and gradually cooked and dug and cooled in that order, untill we were the last ones standing or sitting as it were, untill the tide washed our pool away. It was so definatly worth it missing all the other tourists. We went back to the campsite sleepy but content and ate breakfast on the beach. This is the life.