A Perfect 3 Beach Day

Today has been lovely. It’s hot, sunny, a bit breezy, and we have the whole weekend off. First stop this morning was Hahei Beach. It’s a bit of a drive, 40 minutes around the Whitianga Estuary. We went on a kayak tour from there to Cathedral Cove. Cathedral Cove is a famous beach with a tunnel half way along. We tried to go there last week and hike down to the cove, but the recent storm has closed the trail down. It was a spectacular trip. It was calm and breezy. We got to go into a huge sea cave, with a little beach at the end. The we got out and had lattes and hot chocolate at Cathedral Cove, made by the kayak guide. A woman was singing under one of the caves out in the water and it was stunning. Then we crossed over some open water to these big volcanic rock islands, and got to go through a sea tunnel through the rock. It was amazing! Not too many photos: I was kept busy paddling because my boat-mate (Sam) mostly laid back and gazed at the sea.

                                                 natural shower at the end of Cathedral Cove

James' shower for the week!

tunnel at Cathedral Cove

volcanic rock formations

Next was Hot Water Beach, so far our LEAST favourite beach here. It’s a lovely long white sandy beach, mostly deserted, but with a dense pack of Germans, JAFA’s (Just Another F*%#$ Auklander) and Japanese at one end. You have to stake out a claim and start digging. Geologically, it’s quite cool: hot springs come up through the sand, and the 2 hours either side of low tide are ideal for digging hot pools. The problem is that EVERYONE wants to build their own hot pool, nice and big to lie down in, but the springs only come up across about 20 meters of beach. Not a lot of space for a whole pile of people. Poor James kept on trying to dig a hot pool, and the people digging RIGHT below him kept unintentionally draining his pool! Sometimes just walking across the sand, you have to start running because the soles of your feet are getting burned. Jacquie and Richard, we’ll go there very early one morning on a week day!

 we're a bit early here but within 15 minutes the beach was PACKED

can you see the tight cluster of people just down the beach? that's where the springs are

Our last beach was Cooks beach, a long white crescent beach with a huge warm sand bar and estuary at one end. Perfect for a quick swim at the end of the day. James and Stewart walked from the end of Cook’s Beach to Ferry Landing, then took the ferry over to Whitianga and walked home. Sam and I drove the long way around the estuary.