I'm well done!

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Full on day today
Hot Water Beach is real hot!
Feet are now well done!

After a long, steep trek up Turner Street I had a nice rest and waited for about 1/2 hour for my Stray bus to pick me up. While I was waiting, both the Kiwi Experience and Magic Bus wanted to take me onboard.

There are now ten of us on the bus. I’m still travelling with Jasper the German kid and two Austrian girls, I think their names are Nicole and Danielle (or something like that). Other fellow travellers headed in the same direction are Michelle, a fellow Canadian, Cornelia from Switzerland, Anna from England, Paul also from England, Alison from the States but has been studying in Australia and a German girl (I never did learn her name!)

Our trip started out pretty quiet. I guess because most of us didn't really know one another...yet. Our first stop was to Mt. Eden in Auckland before we headed out of the city. The views up there were pretty good and we were lucky the weather was somewhat clear. At this stop a few of us started chatting and then the bus was no longer really quiet! It was an easy drive up to Hahei where we arrived about noon. We ate lunch and then seven of us trekked over to Cathedral Cove (Michelle, Jasper, Paul, two Austrian girls and the German girl...in flip flops!) We walked across the beach and then up and down a few hills on the way to Cathedral Cove. It sure was a test of the old cardiovascular system.

The walk was well worth it but on the way back it seemed like a really far journey! Perhaps it was because on the way back we made a couple of detours to see Gemstone Bay and Stingray Bay. It was interesting that we had to pass through a couple of stop gates or what I liked to call the fatty passings. haha We all joked that if you couldn't fit through one of those gates it was a sure sign that you should be out and about walking more!

We made it back to the campsite in time to get ready for our trip over to Hot Water Beach. Basically you dig a hole, the geothermally heated water fills in the hole thus creating a nice pool of hot water to sit in. Boy oh boy was it super hot! In fact, almost boiling. Our bus driver Mike said that usually people get about 1/2 hour of sitting in the hot water pools but we were really lucky that the tide was out super low that day and we were out there for about 1.5 hours! When we first got to the beach and were walking out to the area where we needed to dig I was absolutely freezing. But after a little digging action and then jumping into the boiling hot water, it was fine. But then on the walk back to the bus the sand was freezing cold once again. So it was a bit of a shock from freezing to boiling to freezing again...

After a quick shower it was time for a huge meat feast. In other words we had BBQ for dinner! Yum! I haven't had a good BBQ for ages. I still can't believe I consumed a huge steak, two sausages, bread and salad too! So much food and only for $8 and I didn't have to make anything for dindin! I was joking that all that meat/protein would probably be a shock to my system since I really haven't been eating all that much meat as of late.

One of the downsides of staying at hostels and making most of my meals is having to cart around food everywhere. It is a bit of a pain at times and it really makes me miss the cheap and delish meals of SEA and India! Oh well. It is worth it in the end because I have saved a ton of money by not eating out so much and am well within my budget...so far! Then again I've been thinking about going skydiving when in Taupo...will that put me over the edge?!?

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Photos

View from Mt. Eden in Auckland
I like how there is a warning for Mountain Bikers not to attempt going down this crater.

Another view of Cathedral Cove.
Simply amazing!

Hot Water Beach
Yup! It's a hot one.