Woke up this morning to a better sky than we expected and set off to find Hot Water Beach. This is a beach where at certain times of the day geothermal springs come up through the sand and you can dig yourself a hole and wallow in the warm water.
We found the place but the tide was still in.
Travelling further up the coast to a town called Hahei we parked up and walked a coastal path to Cathedral Cove. It took just over an hour each way but was worth every calorie burned. The path started off fairly muddy but soon was a proper tarmac surface. Very steep in parts. The beach at cathedral Cove is absolutely magic. No facilities but silver sand and a big hole in the rock joining 2 beaches. The sun was out and we regretted not having the suntan lotion with us. Well it wasn't that sunny when we started out.
Returning to the car we found a street wagon selling food so we ate 'on the street' then returned to Hot Water Beach. There was a small area which was full of people digging, we joined them and dug our hole and sure enough it was warm, in parts it was scalding - to hot to linger in. By now the sun was out big style but the wind had got up and we could hardly stand up and the sand blowing was stinging. We made our way back to the car and drove to Whitianga a bit further north, where we took a passenger ferry across the river to the town and bought some supplies from the supermarket. Lunch for the journey tomorrow and beer.(not for the journey)