October 20 - Heihei and hot water beach

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Between October 20 and October 24 I had embarked on another fun adventure with the stray bus. On October 20th, we headed over to the Coromandel peninsula and on to Heihei and Hot Water Beach. Hot Water Beach, as the name indicates, is a beach with hot springs under the sands. So we dug a hole where the hot water can form a manmade pool and we laid in it. Well, we tried to anyhow. It was so hot, that we kept stepping out of it. I had tried to put my feet in for a few seconds, but had quickly taken them out. They were as red as a tomato! Apparently, what you’re supposed to do is take a dip in to the cold beach water and then warm up in the hot springs, but we didn’t do that. A few people had decided to kayak over to Cathedral cove, but I opted out since just a couple of days earlier I had kayaked for free in the Bay of Islands. So instead, those of us who didn’t kayak walked along a paved trail to cathedral cove which is along the beach (in a different section than the hot springs). Cathedral cove is this giant rock grotto along the beach. And in the ocean there are random rock islands and such reminiscent of my time at the Bay of Islands. Upon return to our campsite, we chowed down on an authentic Kiwi Barbeque prepared by our driver BP. The BBQ included baked and grilled fish, breaded lamb, beef sausages, mussels, coleslaw (cabbage and coleslaw, surprisingly to me, seem to be very kiwi), asparagus; corn on the cob, kumara (Sweet potato) and for dessert- BP had made this concoction of berries, whipped cream, marshmallows, and chocolate chips.

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