Hot Water Beach...NOT!!!

Sheets smelled old and musty on the bed. Yuck! Oh well.

Up early, about 7:45, showered, made a bacon and egg McMuffin for myself. Yummm!

Still raining.

Left about 9:00, I think, and took the "309" road across the peninsula to kaimarama. A gravel road, the 309 is quite famous, I guess, and a lot shorter than the main highway. Stopped at Waiau Falls and then the Kauri grove, more old and big kauri trees. The road reminded me of the Top of the World highway, between Alaska and Yukon.

Went up to Whitianga, got there about 11:15, stopped at the tourist information office to get tide information for Hot Water Beach. Low tide is 1:50PM.

Drove over to Hahei, and checked into Tahihi Lodge. Thumbs up from Lets Go. $1/night, $3 for bedding. Beautiful motel and hostel. Immaculate! This is the third hostel in a row where the proprietor of the hostel has known me by first name!! Very personal service, and friendly!! I love the smaller hostels!

Got a shovel from reception and headed to Hot Water Beach, short drive away.

What is Hot Water Beach, I hear you all asking? Well, when the tide goes out, 2-hours on either side of low tide, you can dig a hole in the sand, and hot water comes up through the sand to fill your hole with your own personal spa! It's a regular stop on the backpacker bus tours too.

When I arrived at the beach, I got changed into my trunks, grabbed my town and my shovel, walked to the sand (fording a frickin cold stream on the way), and started digging! No hot water here. Moved to another spot and tried again. None here either. I dug about 10 holes all over the place and found no hot water. I suspect it's because of the storm, and rain and huge waves crashing on the beach, it's affected the hot water, the cold ocean water saturating the sand, and keeping the hot water from coming up. There were a couple of other people trying there luck too, but nothing. Mostly it was just people walking along the beach in toques, gloves and parkas, going for a stroll. And here I am in a t-shirt and trunks. They're all wimps! I wasn't even cold!!

Dejected, I drove back to the hostel and hiked to Cathedral Cove (the area's other major attraction). Beautiful beaches and Cathedral Cove is an amazing cove cut into the rock on one of the beaches. You can walk right through it to the beach on the other side. Highly recommended.

Got back to the hostel about 4:00. It was cloudy all day, but no rain. Started raining after I got back to hostel.

Made supper (fake Kraft Dinner...not nearly as good as the real thing), played some solitair, then had a game of Scrabble with a couple from England, planned my next day, where I wanted to go.