We set off early as we had a relatively long drive to get there. We drove along very winding roads, at one point we went for 10 minutes solid without going along a straight patch of road, it was left then right then left etc. continously. We reached Whitianga at around 9am and stopped off to get some supplies from a small mini-mart, and got some pies from a bakery for breakfast - chicken for Lindsey and peppered-beef for me. There was a petrol station across the road, so we refuelled after visiting the i-site, where a woman with a very strange mix of a lancashire and kiwi accent told us about the area.
We set off again, the rain just as strong as it had been when we set off without abating, and made it to Hot Water beach an hour before low tide. We sat there considering whether to get our swimming stuff on, despite the rain, and eventually decided to go for it after another couple ran along before us. We had to wade kneedeep through a stream to get across the beach to the hot water spring, which is heated by a magma chamber below. Hot water seeps through the sand and runs out to sea at a few patches in the centre of the beach. The whole area of this part of the beach was steaming and there were already some people bathing in holes they had dug.
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| 'View' of Hot Water Beach from the shelter of our campervan. |
We started to dig our hole directly in the middle of one of the springs, but soon realised that the water was far too hot, so we dug a hole nearby and created a small channel to let the hot water run into it so we could mix it with the sea water and get the temperature just right. We lay down in the hot water, with steam billowing over us and cool rain drops falling around us; it was blissful. To keep our hole from collapsing we had to continuously dig out the sand, but this was a small price to pay. We couldn't stay all day however so we packed up and went back to the van. There were cold showers available so we got out the shampoo and shower gel and braved the cold and rain in order to get clean. We warmed up with a hot chocolate in the cafe and then went on our way again. We didn't go to cathedral cove, as the rain was not letting up at all, and made our way to Waihi instead. We stopped at a town along the way and got some lunch/tea - two amazing burgers one fish and one steak which came loaded with cheese, beetroot, bacon, egg, tomato and lettuce - along with a bowl of chips this left us completely satisfied after our previous meals of noodles and pasta. At the end of the day we went to our campsite but because of lack of phone signal we went to the local pub to wait for information about the White Island tour we were booked into for the next day. It was a very nice pub, with two pool tables and a competition as that evening. We had lemonade and ginger beer and a hot chocolate only to hear that the WI tour skipper couldn't decide on the weather until the morning. We went back to the campsite and got to bed early ready for our 5am start to get to Whakatane by 9am for the tour.
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