Hot Tubbin'

---

Should I get in the hot tub?
(Yeah!)
Will it make me sweat?
(Yeah!)
Should I get in the hot tub?
(Yeah!)
Will it make me wet?
(Yeah!)
Well, well, well...

- Eddie Murphy as James Brown on Saturday Night Live

I know I know...I just quoted SNL 2 blogs ago. But the James Brown Hot Tub gig cracks me up. This blog entry was originally going to be before the Hell Froze Over entry...but then it turned out that a few days later (despite Hell being frozen) Heaven is still in business and I'd add to my hot pool stories.

First...before our multiple attempts at the Tongariro Crossing, shortly after leaving Rotorua we stopped off on the side of the road at a natural hot spring. This was a good find due to the fact that basically all the hot springs/pools have been commercialized and turned into concrete (or metal) tubs filled with hot water from the ground. As nice as that is...I wasn't too jazzed about paying $5-10 to sit in a semi-smelly spa.

So...after driving past a few more steam emitting areas, we came to a car park at a trail head. Three minutes (and one small waterfall) later we were easing ourselves into a nice natural pool of water (being fed by another waterfall) that was warm enough to be comfortable...but not too hot. It didn't exactly smell like roses, but it wasn't too stinky. There were areas that if I dug a few inches into the sand, I could feel the heat coming up from the ground. Crazy.

After 30 mins or so in this little slice of Heaven, more folks started to show up and it was a tad crowded, so we packed it in and headed back to the car. We had to drive for all of 5 minutes before getting to the next oddity of nature...an abundance of bubbling, gurgling, & splatting mud pools. These aren't for swimming or touching, but are hilarious to watch and listen to. Some would slowly keep letting out small bubbles and some would wait a while to build up a lot of pressure for a rather violent splatting release. There were a couple that had built up into small volcanoes. All in all, it was a strange sight to see and hear.

We then passed Tongariro and headed to the Taranaki region as described in the previous blog entry. After our crazy Tongariro adventure we headed up to Tauranga on the east coast again (I'll include a map in my final NZ post showing how crazy of a route we took during this 23 day Mazda powered adventure) to head out for another Saturday night of fun. Turns out that the bar we went to had the same band we saw the previous week in Rotorua and I also ran into some folks from my hostel back in Queenstown (5 weeks ago). Perhaps it's time to leave New Zealand, eh?

The following days brought us the Coromandel Peninsula...a picturesque stretch of the east coast that has many walks, diving, waterfalls, etc. Quite a nice area and we've apparently been granted a respite from the winter weather. Our first gig was the Cathedral Cove walk. There's no good story...but I've included some photos of the area.

We woke up the next day and I took a morning stroll on Hot Pool Beach to see what it's all about. We had read that there's a section of beach where you can dig a hole and it will fill with hot water in which one can sit. I got to a section where the water seeping out of the sand was literally too hot to walk on. I ran back to the car, got my shorts and a towel and headed back out to dig me a sweet hot tub. Thankfully there were some other folks who had a shovel and we got to work.

It actually turned out to be quite an effort. I didn't want to dig in the super hot area because it would be too hot...so I started a few meters off to the side. This was too cold, so I dug a trench back to the hot area to warm things up. The hole looked big enough, so we hopped in. Perfect. We sat there in our natural hot tub watching the sun continue to rise and sparkle on the water spray from waves crashing on the rocks in front of us.

Then I noticed that my left side was getting rather uncomfortable to the point that it was tingling. The hot water trench was getting out of control and the cold water side started leaking into the ocean. Soon enough Anna decided to get out to avoid turning pink. I followed shortly after to preserve the integrity of my epidermis.

From here...the next several days of the North Island adventure consists of a variety of more (mostly) nice weather, beaches, waterfalls...and a lot of driving. But I'm not sure I have any interesting stories other than my multi-cow encounter on the Coromandel Walkway. It begins while sleeping in the car at the trail head of walkway at 3am...

I sit straight up in my sleeping bag having been yanked out of my deep sleep by Anna flashing our headlights (and the associated beeping the car makes when the lights are on when the engine isn't) and Anna cursing "F#%@ cow!".

A short detour from the story. Anna has asked me to help her with her english and I'm afraid that the main contribution I've made to her linguistic ability is to correct her on her incorrect usage of the F-bomb. She always forgets the "-ing" when using it as a modifier. This seems to be one of the few english tips I've given her that have stuck though...so I'll take my victories where I can.

Back to 3am...I alarmedly (is that a word?) ask Anna what's going on and she frantically points out the windshield as she's flashing the headlights. I look to see the cause of the commotion...there's a cow standing in front of the car looking at us.

It's rather strange because Anna is a girl who seemingly has no worries about where we park and sleep. Almost every night I say something like:
- "I don't think we're supposed to park here"
- "There a sign saying no parking/camping"
- "I think we're supposed to pay to be here"
- "I'm not sure this is a good place" (semi-worrying about people being nearby and deciding to somehow be a problem)
To which she would always reply with a variant of "No, this is a good spot. It's all good." Since she did this for months on the South Island, I trust her experience and figure we'll just deal with any angry farmers, annoying townies, cops, or park rangers. No problems so far.

The only concern she's ever voiced is when there's a sign nearby for "Wandering Livestock" and she's apprehensive about sleeping near cows. I thought she was kidding.

I also consider myself to have been blessed with the gift of sleeping through almost anything. I've learned that Anna far exceeds my sleeping ability as she manages to sleep through rain, wind, random cars driving by and shining their lights on us, farmers unloading a truckload of dogs to chase sheep, and other things that go bump in the night. Yet somehow her powers of sleep are no match for the presence of our bovine visitor and she woke up.

I'm not sure what she expects to happen, but keeps flipping the lights on and off to get rid of the cow. Unfortunately, cows aren't a terribly responsive part of creation. She either gives up or the cow leaves...I don't know & don't care and have resumed my attempt to sleep. A few minutes later she rustles around in her sleeping bag and states "I think we should cross the ford tomorrow, it will be safer." My sleepy brain finally realizes what she's talking about. There's a small stream crossing (ford) on the road that we deemed too deep for the Mazda and stopped driving on the way to the trail head. Now at 3am she's decided that the risk of flooding her car is a better option than leaving the car in a cow-infested area. In the morning we discover that there are even more cows across the stream and we head off on the hike.

30 mins into the hike we come across another hiker (another German) who is trying to get a cow unstuck from a fence that it tried to jump over. One hind leg is caught between several twisted wires and the cow doesn't look very comfortable. We start to pull, twist, and pry in attempt to get enough space between the wires for the hoof to fit through. The efforts result in sore fingers, no success, and a fresh pile of dung recently deposited next to our feet. Is this how cows show appreciation? We eventually manage to free the oversized grass eating dung factory...it stands up, limps a couple of times, looks back at us and drops another load on the ground. Apparently it is how they show appreciation. You're welcome cow. Go eat some grass. The remainder of the trail was beautiful and involved getting a bit lost, some shells on the beach, a crab, and lots of photos of budding fern branches (the Koru).

Now that we've experienced more natural thermal activity and natural cow activity, there are only a few days remaining before the journey takes me west across the Tasman Sea.

Until next time...

Marc

---

Photos

Ground Breaking Ceremony
Just borrow a shovel, dig, and sit in your own hot tub on the beach.

Reaping The Benefits of Our Labor
There was a little tributary on my side bringing in scalding water...all the more reasonable water leaked out the other side and into the ocean. Just kept getting hotter and hotter.

Steaming Bubbling Mud Pond
There were probably about 30-40 bubbling spots in this little 'pond'. It cracked me up just to watch and listen.

Cameras Are Fun
This is in the arch-way Cathedral Cove thingy between two beaches on the Coromandel Coast. After a hundred or so photos of everything around...it was time to screw around a bit.

Cameras Are Fun
...and a bit more. It looks quite fake...but it's really me jumping on sand in front of what you see here.

Comments

[the British james Brown]

Dude. Are you gonna miss ANYTHING in New Zealand!! My God! Good to see you are still having it large. Keep us posted! Enjoying the blog!

[Going Global]

Almost everything...
I didn't come all this way to miss anything, right? Actually, I would have preferred a slower pace on the north island, but the owner of the car was a tad eager to see ever freaking town/city/beach/area on the island. Am indeed on sensory overload and am ready for several days of doing/seeing nothing and sitting on my bum in front of a large TV. But all in all I'd say that we covered quite a bit of the North considering we only had a little over 3 weeks.

[Matt]

Damn...
Way to pick travel a travel partner...I can't believe you're still in New Zealand, Vorovoro seems like forever ago. I hope you don't go to Australia, it's a much bigger country dude.

[Going Global]

Too late...
...I'm in Australia already and doing my best to not think about how big it is and how much there is to do. Only a little over 3 weeks here before moving on. Would love more time here, but gotta get to somewhere CHEAP.