Nov 13 Hot Water Beach to Miranda

Got out of the nasty R.V. park without showering. It was so old and thrown together that the sinks had no drainpipes, the water just flowed out the bottom and ended up on the floor, where a groove cut in the concrete carried it outside. Classy.

Since we’d checked the tide tables, and low tide wasn’t until 1:30pm, we elected to go exploring Cathedral cove, a cool collection of caves and features being eroded away by the sea.



Don’t know what this trailside foliage is, I just know I don’t want to fall into it…




After a long walk down to the beach, we ended up in a series of coves, sea stacks and small islands jutting out of the surf. Pretty….







Denise modeling on the sand…



Found a tiny little cave, had to wade through the surf to get in…



This colorful guy was waiting for the tide to come back in nearby…




Panoramic…




New green ferns everywhere. New camera has a “super macro” feature…



Enough. We hiked back, drove to Hot Water Beach. Wow. Little different than yesterday…



Popular.




Guess we should have come earlier to find a spot and dig. The early people had some expansive holes created above the surf zone, they relaxed in the steaming water as the rest of us tried to reinforce our sand castles before the next big wave.

Impressively hot in places, I actually burned the bottoms of my feet a bit by staying in one place too long. Not much fun with the high waves, endlessly having to dig as the waves would destroy any progress. But, we did it. Sat our butts in a natural hot tub. Kind of cool.


Back to the van, we changed and ate, then continued around the peninsula. Great drive. Peaks, sand dunes, rocky outcroppings, twisty roads, narrow lanes, beautiful greenery. A fellow biker recommended the Coromandel, he was right. Beautiful.




I like this sign. Simple, direct, fluorescent…



Saw a mailbox I liked, too fast to get a pic, but it was an old outboard motor mounted upright. Neat idea for a cottage on the bay.

Completing the loop around the peninsula, we stopped off at Miranda, a motor home park with it’s very own natural hot spring…



Parked, plugged in, and went for a swim. Ahhh. Slightly sulphurous, but warm, almost hot. Small openings in the bottom of the pool allowed HOT water and bubbles to creep in. I could sleep here. Very nice after a long day’s driving and digging.

We were a little sad, though. We had to give back the van tomorrow, meaning our vacation is winding down. Only 100kms to Auckland. We tidied and packed a bit, hoping we’d have enough space for everything we’d collected over the last month. One last dip before bed in the mineral laden spring, and,

Goodnight.