The beauty of knowing a friend of a friend of a friend!

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But not before a visit to Hot Water Beach, where you can dig a hole in the sand and sizzle the bottoms of your feet off in the EXTREMELY hot water that bubbles out of it. Well, thats the idea anyway....if you get the tides right! Guess what?! We didn't! We arrived to find the tide coming in, a serious amount of people - most of whom were armed with mini spades and that there was a queue to dig a hole - I mean for goodness sakes a queue for digging a hole!!!! We weaved our way through the overly enthusiastic sand flickers and stuck our big toes into the sand - ouch! There were some serious hot spots in the sand! It was really weird! With the tide coming in - the water lapping around our ankles was chilly, yet the soles of your feet were seriously burning up! Very odd.

From there we opted, perhaps unwisely, to head to Cathedral Cove. In the rain, the walk down to it looked positively unpleasant, driving rain and whistling winds.....nevertheless i took the brave steps to go out on the cliff to peer along the coastline to see if I could see the Cove - no such luck through the mist. Somewhat defeated we decided that house visits were order for the day.

First stop was to go and visit a kiwi couple that we had met in a campsite - Alan and Debbie. Unfortunately Alan was busy but Debbie very kindly treated us to a home brew - which was received particularly well by Jen, who has been missing her 47 cuppas a day. Can you imagine how long we would have been on stop?! I mean it took 45 minutes to boil a cup of water...then there's the drinking it! Anyway, we had a lovely chat about NZ and plans for the future. But had to make a move as our final destination for the day was Whakatane, still a few hours away.

Before Whakatane though, Deb's (a kiwi) one of our close family friends had forewarned most of her family that we were about and would love some home made grub. As a result we were able to stop in for lunch at her sisters, who made us one of the best sandwiches I think we have had on the trip. Amazing how much home comforts are missed. A comfy couch, a sandwich that didn't contain picalilli and some sane conversation (jen and i have our weird and wacky moments all too frequently now!) were a welcome relief from being in a mini camper van! She too was quite a traveller and it was fascinating to exchange stories, particularly about China. From there it was on to debs' parents (Ailsa and Bryan) for dinner - it truly was a day of treats! Another home cooked meal, this one containing no end of home grown veg - some of which we hadn't seen for weeks! Ace! And to top it all off we got our own beds - although the threat of sharing them with the occasional cat was imminent! They were able to share some fascinating history of NZ with us - recounting an earthquake in Edgecumbe well enough to put me on edge about the ground opening up at any minute! The next morning was wetter and greyer than any morning we had seen in NZ but not to be put off Bryan still did a fantastic job of showing us the sights and sounds of Whakatane, pointing into the grey mist as to where places should be and describing the view as it would usually be! Bryan was emphatic about the beauty of the East Coast, however the daunting task of driving off into the driving rain along the coast was a bit much for me and instead we opted to head South, in hope of more sunshine - aiming for Napier - Art Deco Town.

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