Cam & Em's New Zealand Holiday

Despite dire predictions, Sunday dawned fine, sunny and warm. I know... I was there to see it, having woken at 6 AM to watch sunrise over Hahei beach. Will have to see the photos come out... I think it was a good dawn, but not stunning.

Once Em woke up we walked up the beach, then on to Cathedral Cove (it was Sunday, after all), a moderate walk of about 1 hour each way, not including the swim I had at each end. Cathedral cove is a natural archway eroded through volcanic rock deposited around 7 - 8 million years ago. The Cathedral-like arch is passable for most of the day, but flooded at high tide. The walk includes some great views of the coastline.

After lunch we started driving towards some of the shorter walks we never got to yesterday, but we never got there today either. Realising that we weren't going to make it, we turned around and headed back to our primary target for the afternoon .. Hot Water Beach.

Landing in hot water Hot Water Beach
Hot Water Beach is formed by two hot-water springs that emerge near the surface on the tidal part of a beach. For about two hours either side of low tide, if you dig a shallow hole in the correct place on the beach, it will fill with quite hot water .. hot enough that you may need to mix cold seawater with it before you can sit in it. Of course, depending on where you have dug your hole, the ocean may mix cold water on your behalf. That's the theory of Hot Water Beach. The practice is quite another thing. Get about 500 people, arm a quarter of them with shovels and buckets, and let them loose on two 30m-long sections of brown-sanded beach. When one group finds the vein of hot water they dig themselves a little spa pool, with sandcastle walls around it. Others start digging their own pools (stake their claims) around the first, trying to cash in on the strike. Pools may join into co-operative pool joint ventures as miners struggle to defend their claim against squatters, clumsy observers and the rapidly encroaching tide. But every now and then a group may establish a stable pool with just the right temperature water, then settle back with cans of beer, snacks, and with sighs of bacchanalian delight. Picture a cross between a goldrush, battlefield trenches, and those photos of people wallowing in the mud at Woodstock, and you're pretty close.

From there it was back to Hahei Beach, back to the cheese and pate, and this time a bottle of fairly average Hawke's Bay Cabernet Merlot Malbec.. (I think it could have been this one)

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