Day 135 - Whitianga, New Zealand

Day 135 – 21st October 2005 +12:00 GMT Total Miles 26979

Woke up and it is still raining, had some breakfast and decided that we were British and rain was not going to stop us from exploring. We drove south to Hahei and parked the car then went on a 90 minute round trip walk to a cove called Cathedral Bay, on route we took a detour through the forest, the bay is lovely it has a huge archway through the rock at one end which leads to the sea.


Jill on beach at Cathedral Cove


Me at Cathedral Cove


The Cathedral Cove Archway


The Cathedral Cove Archway


The Cathedral Cove Archway

Unfortunately due to the weather the waves were huge and crashing down on the rocks.
The beach here would be fantastic on a hot day.


Bad Weather at Cathedral Cove

We walked back to the car and drove a bit further to Hot Water Beach. There are natural hot springs here that are caused from the last volcano which superheated a reservoir of water.


Hot Water Beach

We searched for the hot springs but could not find them, then read that they can be felt from 2 hours before low tide to 2 hours after low tide, so went to a nearby café for some food. At 4pm we went back along the beach armed with a spade and met several other people trying to dig holes but with no success as the water level was so high it was washing away any holes dug in the sand. So I got everyone to work together and build a barrier against the sea then dig the hole.


Getting Everyone to build a Sea Barrier


Building Sea Barrier

So we spent 30 minutes building a huge sand wall, then dug into the sand to feel the hot water flowing.


Reece and I with our Spades

Now there are two natural springs and the temperatures are 60 C and 64 C and we were digging at the hot one. As you can imagine 64 C is very very hot. The idea is to dig a hole and it mixes with the sea water and it is quite nice. We had just blocked out the sea so had to wait for it to cool a little. In the end we had over a dozen people in our self dug sand hole.


Jill and I on Hot Water Beach


Everyone sittng in the hot Springs in the Sand.

Although it was still pouring with rain we had had a fun day on the beach. We then drove back to the hostel soaking wet, we showered and changed then did our washing. We then spent the evening cooking and played cards while our washing was being done.