Cathedral Cove & Hot Water Beach

Hot Water Beach from the cliffs

Cathedral Cove

Three kids at Cathedral Cove

 

Castles in the Sand - Cathedral Cove

Beware of Falling Rocks

Today we get up and out for an adventure.  We plan to backtrack our path from yesterday and stop off to see some of the sites we had to go past yesterday.  We start out by going to the Hot Water Beach - a place where at low tide you can dig a hole in the sand and warm your bum in the hot water that comes up from deep within the earth.  Sounds like fun..  We arrive there and find a place to park.  It is a bit windy and chilly,but the warm sun feels great on our skin.  The beach is beautiful and a long sandy stretch that will be great for walking.  We run down to the edge of the water......and.....feels like the arctic!  That hot water will be feeling pretty good right about now.  We sun ourselves for a while and then go around collecting shells.   Paulie, Hudson and Sam decide to search out the hot water areas and Annie and I sit in the sun for a while.  Turns out the Hot Water Beach

Annie Jumping into frigid water

Annie and Paulie at the Cove

should be renamed to be the Tepid Water Beach!  We pack up and head a
little farther along, back to the town of Hahei and have a lunch of Fish-n-Chips.  We sit outside and have our picnic before getting back into the car again to head to an area called Cathedral Cove.  We drive up and get ready for our 45 minute hike to the Cove.  Up and down and up and down.....beautiful area, but quite a little hike. We arrive and it is GORGEOUS!  There is a large rock not too far from shore and the kids decide to brave the cold water and go out to the rock where other kids are jumping off into the deep, crystal blue water below.  We spent a while walking around through the rocks and exploring the caves before tackling the hike back to the car.  The kids take off and are up the hill while Paulie and I are

Sammy going into the water

"pacing" ourselves for the long trek.  Along the way, we meet a couple from

Hudson goes for it!

Wellington whose kids have also shot up the path too.  We have an interesting conversation and before we know it we are reaching the top of the path where all of our children are looking at the four of us wondering what could have possibly taken us so long.  We chat a little more and then they realize they have misplace their keys.  We offer to drive them where they need to go, but they opt to go back down the path and search for their keys.  We say our good-byes and are on our way back to Whitianga. We stop by the grocery store for a few items and head back home to prepare dinner, shower and settle in for the night.