Big Trip

Left Tairua this morning to head up the east coast of the Coromandel peninsula and then cut across to Coromandel Town itself. We were lucky with the tide times, so our first stop was Hot Water Beach, so called because there are hot water springs that come up close to the surface of the sand, and at low tide you can dig yourself a spa. Of course, being newbies, by the time we got there many people had already found spots and dug theirs, and there was quite a melee going on. I found a spot just in the waves, and reasoned that, if I stood there long enough, the tide would go out & I'd be able to dig myself a nice hot pool with the spades we hired from the beach cafe. I stood there for quite a while, actually, alternately scalding & cooling my feet. I had a number of goes at digging a hole, but each time the tide would come back at me and fill the hole in. In the end, we contented ourselves with knowing that we could have dug a spa if we'd really wanted to. Anyway, the hot water was really hot (60+ deg. C) so it would have been too hot to sit in without some complex channel system to the sea to mix it with cold. And it was too hot to sit in hot water anyway.
After a play in some nice cool water we drove on up some very windy roads and past some beautiful beaches around Mercury Bay up to Coromandel and the rather lovely Anchor Lodge Motel. Fantastic views over the bay from the balcony.