Coromadel Peninsula Part 1 of 2

Greetings!
I realized that the text in some of my posts have been getting cut off. Not happy! So I'm going to try to do a post with text followed by a post with pictures.
On Wednesday, the 22 we set out early and headed north to the Coromadel Peninsula. It was pouring rain when we left, like the Oregon Coast in December. So much rain. But, we chose to travel to NZ in winter, we have rain gear, and we're from Oregon- rain doesn't stop us!
Between the rain and the very curvy roads we had to take it slow. It was a beautiful drive up the coast, and we had to stop quite a few times for stretch breaks and to calm carsick stomachs! We'd planned for 3 hours but it took us about 4. We could tell all the little coastal towns would be busy summer destinations but everything was fairly quiet on the stormy winter day. We loved the names of the little towns, 'Pauanui' and 'Whiritoa' and 'Whangamata.'
Eventually we reached our first destination, Cathedral Cove. The parking lot only had a half dozen cars (perks of traveling in the off season!) and the rain had stopped for the moment. From what we'd read, we would need to walk about 45 minutes to get down to the cove. We were all kind of carsick but the fresh air felt good and we set out.
The walk started on top of the cliff, then wound down through glades of fern trees. Our views varied from beautiful vistas of small lush islands to being almost submerged in jungle like vegetation. Someone (usually Maddy!) was constantly falling behind due to excessive picture taking!
The 45 minute walk took us about 25 (it was paved and downhill most of the way!) and we descended the many stairs to arrive on Cathedral Cove Beach. Still not raining, but VERY windy. We were all in awe. We were standing on this small beach, nestled between huge (sandstone? Limestone? ??) walls. To our left was a massive natural tunnel leading to the other side of the cove. We spent some time exploring and taking photos. It felt serene, peaceful, and meaningful somehow. Inexplicably, the tremendous wind gusts just added to it.

We didn't want to leave but we knew we needed to get to Hot Water Beach an hour before low tide (of course Joel had already looked up the tides . . . When we were still in Oregon!). The walk back up to the car was a little more difficult but only took us a few minutes longer. We quickly passed out lunches and hit the road again.
Thankfully Hot Water Beach was only about 10 minutes away. We found a place to rent spades and parked. Garrett and Carter were ready, so they took spades and ran ahead. By now the rain was starting up again. I'm sure we looked ridiculous walking down the beach in the pouring rain in our swimsuits and rain coats! The spot we were trying to get to was about 15 minutes down the beach and we were pretty cold!
For my readers (mostly from the PacNW) to imagine this, you need to think of a very stormy day on the coast at home. Like a winter storm with incessant rain and really strong wind and gusts. But instead of 40 degrees, here it's about 60. So still cold, but the total misery that the Oregon Coast can be in winter. So it felt a little weird to be in this storm in our suits, but it was pretty cool.
Anyway, we Maddy and I were last and we could see our crew in the distance, scurrying around. As we neared, we could see steam rising from the sand. Once we got closer, the sand under our feet got warm, and then too hot to walk on! Joel, R, and the boys were trying to figure out a place to dig that would be warm, but not too close to the hottest spots!
As you've probably figured out, Hot Water Beach has hot springs beneath/on the surface of the sand. In some places you know it's there because the sand is so hot. In other places it's bubbling up out of the sad and running down the beach in streams down to the ocean. If you get there by low tide, you can dig holes in the sand and then soak in the hot water. As the tide comes in, the hot water spots get covered up, so you have to get there at a certain time. Plus, it can get crowded so you need to be there about an hour before low tide for best results. When we arrived we were the only people there but at the peak there were probably 20-30. We were surprised that so many people braved the weather to do it.
Eventually we found the perfect spot. It's tricky because we were dealing with wet sand and moving water and lots and lots of rain. We only had 2 spades between us, so it was fairly comical. I'm going to try to load a short video on the other post so you can get an idea of the whole experience.
It was really amazing, truly. It was one of those moments that was just unbelievable. We were laying in a pool of hot water in the beach! In the rain! In NEW ZEALAND! Definitely one of the coolest things we ever experienced, and the rain only made it that much cooler.
Eventually we left- we didn't wait for the tide to come back up to us. It was getting kind of crowded and people kept inadvertently diverting our hot water so we decided to head back. (We were there for at least 90 minutes!) Maddy, Rebeka, and I left a little before the boys so we could get changed. I know I keep mentioning the rain, but it was seriously coming down. Imagine trying to get out of wet, sandy swimsuits into dry clothes while standing in the shower. That's what is was like. And we had buckets and buckets of sand on us. Hair, ears, swimsuits, feet. Plus with the wind, if any car door was open it was like spraying a hose right inside the car. Within seconds everything was drenched. There was nowhere to change so we did our best to make it work in the parking lot with towels, or in the car, but it was pretty impossible.

Note to Hot Water Beach entrepreneurs: you could make an absolute killing on changing rooms and coin operated showers. A killing.

Eventually we sort of got cleaned up (very loosely defined) and found warm drinks and snacks where we returned the spades. Thank goodness! We thought about renting a hotel room and staying, as we were all dreading the several hour drive back, but we didn't have M's meds with us (dumb) and all of our stuff was sandy and soaked so we decide to head back but try a different route. That ended up being a great choice- the road back was much less curvy and mountainous.
We made it back to Rotorua around 8 and of course ran to the nearest McDs to use the wifi!



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