December 17th

Saturday December 17th:

Today we woke up early and went to Hot Water Beach.  You can dig little sauna’s.  According to http://www.mercurybay.co.nz/activities/hotwaterbeach.php: “Some volcanos develop huge underground reservoirs of superheated water. Over time, this water will escape to the surface — cooling on the way. There are two fissures at Hot Water Beach issuing water as hot as 64ºC (147ºF) at a rate as high as 15 litres/minute. This water contains large amounts of salt (NOT salt water), calcium, magnesium, potassium, fluorine, bromine and silica. There are other hot water springs nearby but the location of these two springs on the beach make them unique.”

sunrise over the beach

Tara walks to the beach.

We had trouble finding a spot in the beginning.  We had to wake up early as you only have two hours on either side of low tide and there is only a small window of beach and the afternoon/evening low tide is really crowded.  We eventually learned you had to feel the hot sand under your feet before you should dig.  We eventually found a spot but were a little rushed.  Overall, we had a great time, but when they say “Hot” Water Beach, they really mean hot!  The guy next to us actually had a first degree burn on his feet!

Tara and dad digging in the wrong spot!  It is freezing water.

Finally we saw a surfer who helped us out and we followed a rainbow over to the correct spot.

There is a small section with really cool rocks in the ocean and on the beach-that is the spot.

The sand below your feet is hot, but only in a few select spaces.

Now we are in the right spot!

Gabe was on a mission to save jelly fish and star fish.  He managed to save one star fish that was alive up on the beach and threw back several jellies. 

Starfish Search and Rescue

Salt water bath.

It really attached to his hand!

A Jelly

Another Jelly

The area around the Hot Water Beach was absolutely stunning!

Tara in front of a pohutukawa tree.

After the tide reclaimed the beach we walked back to the car park, but to get there you have to cross a small stream.  The kids played in it for about half of an hour before we went home to a late breakfast.  It is really more of a feast than anything else.

The only access to the beach is by crossing that stream, it is up to a foot and a half deep with lots of rocks!

The boys building . . . something?  They eventually tried to build a dam across it.

We then headed around SH 25 until we caught a scenic gravel road, The 309, across the center of the Coromandel Peninsula.  We found a neat little walk with a small grove of kauri trees, including a siamese kauri.  We couldn’t find the water fall, but still had a good walk.  The road was amazingly twisty and in many spots there was room for only one car (sometimes marked and sometimes not).

We eventually found a stop called the Waterworks.  It was an area with around seventy different creations using water in creative ways.  It used a lot of solar and water power as well.  After getting fairly wet there was a large park with a big hamster wheel, a giant bowling set, a flying bike, and a flying fox (zip line).  It was a lot of fun!

After several hours at the Waterworks, we headed onto paved roads to find Coromandel town on the Northwest corner of the peninsula of the same name.  We had a late lunch at the Peppertree restaurant before heading back to Hahei to get ready to check out and move on tomorrow!

A one lane bridge, small arrow gives way to larger.

A ford crossing.

A nice wide road.

Heading to kauri grove.

This kauri is only a few hundred years old, the oldest was 6000 years old.

Waterworks water clock.

Water bike-peddle=spray.

water canons

Barrel bowling.

ET flying bike-peddle=fly around.

Flying Fox/zip line

It ends abruptly.