Friday October 26th and at last I think we’re over the Jetlag as I woke up at a normal time of around 6am. I left Anna and Morgan sleeping and headed off for a stroll along the beach of Mercury Bay whilst watching the sun rise. It was a gorgeous still day with no one around, just me, the sea-birds and the scenery.

It was then back to the camper for breakfast of muesli, yoghurt and toast with Anna and Morgan before heading off to my parents apartment at Oceans Resort for a second breakfast. Perfect, what better way to start the day than with an early morning stroll along a deserted beach and two breakfasts!

Hot Water Beach

The plan for the rest of the day was to visit Hot Water beach, something Morgan had been looking forward to for weeks, and then to hang around the bottom of the Coramndel Peninsula. Hopefully there wouldn’t be too much driving involved today and we could have a bit of a rest and chill in the sunshine. Luckily the weather co-operated and the sun was blazing by the time we got to Hot Water Beach.

We hired a spade from the little surf shop on the beach for $5, got into our swimming kit and wandered across the beach to join the hoards already digging holes in the sand. The name Hot Water Beach comes from underground hot springs which filter up through the sand between the high and low water marks. Two hours either side of low tide it is possible to dig into the sand allowing hot water to escape to the surface forming a hot water pool. The water, with a temperature as hot as 64°C, filters up from two underground fissures. It was easy to find the correct location as there were already lots of people soaking in pools they had dug. We first tried at the edge of these but as we dug our toes into the sand it was obvious that it was cold just here. There was a gap in the middle of the people so we tried there, but this was far too hot. It was surprising just how hot it was, far too hot to stand on for a second let alone make a pool and sit in it. No wonder there was a gap in the people here.

In the end the best technique was to dig a hole in the sand at the edge of the hot water area and then channel some of the really hot water from the middle into your cooler water pool. Every now and then there would be a breach in the sand and too much of the hot water would seep in, so constant vigilance was needed to maintain the sand defences around our pool. We got the hang of it pretty quickly though and soon had a lovely hot water pool to soak in. Morgan was particularly impressed which was good seeing as he had been looking forward to it so much. Anna and I were surprised by just how hot it was. It was just a shame we had to share it with so many other people, but that wasn’t surprising really seeing as it was now a perfect day for the beach. You can see from the photos that Morgan had yet to wash properly as he still has the Union Jack tattoo on his face from supporting me in the triathlon. I still have Union Jack nail varnish on my toes too – what a patriotic family!

My parents turned up after a while as well and had a paddle in the pools too before they headed off towards Rotorua for their next stop – They’d already been to Hot Water Beach the day before. Eventually the tide turned and as it came in swamped our lovely hot water pool with cold sea-water. It was time to leave, return our spade and head off a little way up the coast to Hahei for a picnic lunch.

Hahei and Beehives

With the sun shining on the white sands and blue waters of Hahei Beach which is backed by trees it looked like a little bit of paradise. We sat on the grass above the beach, soaking up the sun and the scenery whilst eating our lunch.

After a while we decided to head south along the coast, we didn’t really have a plan as to where we were going or where we would stop but we ended up at Whangamata. On the way we drove through the hills of the Coramandel Peninsula. We passed lots of signs for the K2 Cycle Challenge, I didn’t know anything about it but judging by the route it was taking it looked like an amazing race. We also passed lots of beehive apiaries. New Zealand is famous for its honey and there are beehives everywhere. As bee-keepers ourselves we were pretty interested in these, especially as they seem to have the small apiaries all over the place. Some are along the sides of the road, others within little clearings in the forest and yet more within fields. They don’t seem to protect them with fences either, they are just free-standing in the fields along with the livestock. There are also honey bees everywhere you look. If a tree is in blossom then you can hear them buzzing as you approach and once you look closely the tree will be covered in little orange and black honey bees.It doesn’t seem to matter where you are either, up in the hills, on the coast, miles from anywhere or in a city there are bees busily going about their business. If only it was like this in the UK where you are lucky to see a honey bee unless you happen to be in a bee-keepers garden.

We stopped off en route to do a gecoache at a layby with stunning views of the forests and mountains before continuing on to Whangamata.

Whangamata

Once at Whangamata Anna and Morgan had a snooze on the camper while I went for a walk along the beach and then a barefoot run back. The weather was still lovely and the beach fairly quiet. I looked up some geocaches in the area and apparently the island in the middle of the bay is hollow. There is an archway on the seaward side that you can kayak through, into the hollow interior of the island and a small beach contained within it. From here you can climb up to retrieve a geocache. That sounded like a great cache to me, but without a kayak it may be a little difficult for us to do on this holiday so it would have to remain un-found for us. It was a lovely afternoon on the beach though and although my barefoot run was very short it was nice to be on the beach on the sunshine doing a small amount of exercise.

Once back at the camper We all set off into town for a stroll around the shops. There were lots of surf shops as Whangamata is a world renowned surf spot. The Whangamata Bar is regarded as one of New Zealand’s premier surfing waves. The steep faced left hander breaks along a sandbank at the entrance to Whangamata Harbour. I didn’t have any surfing kit with me, but it didn’t really matter as it was completely flat today (as you can see from the photo above). Morgan wanted to play on the beach so we bought him a bucket and spade, had ice-creams and then stopped at a bakery for some cakes.

I’d been eyeing up the Lamingtons for a while (sometime written leamingtons). The seem to be everywhere on New Zealand and they looked pretty interesting as cakes go but I wasn’t sure what they were so I asked the Japanese lady in the bakery. She said they are just ‘Spong’ – Spong, what in the world is spong?? Anna and I looked at each other with quizzical expressions and then after a few seconds it dawned on us both what she was saying – sponge, they are just sponge! It was petty funny at the time and one of those things that stuck. For us ‘sponge cakes’ will now forever be known as ‘spong cakes’. We bought one anyway and it wasn’t quite as exciting as it looked. It was as the Japanese lady had said ‘just spong’, coated in a chocolate flavoured coating and sprinkled with desiccated coconut –  a little bit too ‘spong-y’ for my liking really.

We’d parked up for the night in a large campsite within Whangamata. It had lots of fairly permanent looking mobile homes and caravans and a few little chalets too. It had plenty of facilities though and a huge communal kitchen, showers and a little playground. It was also very convenient for the beach and the town. Our camper was parked in a quiet little area of the campsite close to the amenities. We were hooked up to the electricity and cooked ourselves a lovely meatball and pasta dinner before heading off to the beach again feeling a little fat!

We had a lovely walk along the beach as the sun was beginning to set. Morgan had his bucket and spade so played in the sand near to the harbour while Anna and I walked onto the jetty and watched the clear waters rushing along below it. The picturesque harbour looked lovely with the low sun over it, the boats moored at their buoys and the trees of the forest across the channel growing right down to the waters edge. A perfect finish to a relaxing but packed day on the Coramandel Peninsula. We could easily spend a couple of weeks here.

 

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Comment *

Name

Email

Website

Notify me of follow-up comments by email.

Notify me of new posts by email.

Δ

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Tags: BeachesBeekeepingNew ZealandWhangamataWhitianga