Nov 12 Waitomo to Hot Water Beach

Left Waitomo early in the am, there was lots of driving to do. Across the island to the Coromandel Peninsula. Mail carriers on bicycles here, fluorescent vests and bags. Must get a good workout.

Also noticed that the more severe corners are grooved, nice touch.

Made it across to the other ocean, came out at Mt Maunganui in Tauranga. Sandy beach, pretty. Surfers, flowers, sun.




Continued north to one of the spots Denise wanted to see, Hot Water Beach.

It’s a hot spring in the surf zone. During low tide, people dig depressions in the sand, and relax in the warm water. Neat.

Thanks to Google, here’s the place…




Basically it bubbles up through the sand between the shore and the small rock. Look close, you can see the remnants of holes…




Unfortunately it was high tide.






Here you can see some yellow sulphur in the foam…




Tried digging a hole anyway, but no luck. It’s actually a fairly small area that’s affected, and it’s completely underwater.

Big waves, played in the sand, saw some surfers, but no hot water. We drove to the “town”, and got hooked up with the crappiest campervan park yet. Aladdins. Why? Crazy fast internet. The slackjawed kid that was “running” the place just looked at me blankly when I asked if they left the router on after office hours. After distilling it down to, “Do you shut off the computer at night?”, I had my answer. We stayed. Got lots of updates done.

Goodnight.