Saturday 28th January - Roturua to Hot Water Beach

After two very restful nights we enjoyed a farewell breakfast in the sun in Jenny and Neil’s Garden, trading family stories and comparing New Zealand to the UK.

We then hit the road heading for ‘Hell’s Gate’ – a purpose built walkway around thermal sulphur pools where Mauri tribes used to bathe. The sulphur which bubbles through the earth at temperatures up to 120 degrees Celsius gives off a pungent eggy smell which we decided also smelt of pea and ham soup or burnt popcorn. It was interesting to walk around the park, although Amanda moaned the whole way and pegged her nose like a 5 year old. One of the pools was the shape of Australia. There were also cold springs in amongst the bubbling pools. One of the pools was a constant 88 degrees and would cook a whole pig in 2 - 4 hours! Impressive! At the end of the walk, Gav dipped his feet in the soothing hot natural spa, which was nice for the aches and pains of the activities the day before!

After buying a fern wood keying for the gift shop we set of to the Coromandel peninsula in the north of the island. On the way we stopped at an interesting town called Tirau which had some quirky shops and the local information site was the shape of a dog and sheep!

We ploughed on for another few hours until we arrived at Hot Water Beach. We had aimed to get there for 5.30pm as this was low tide. We arrived a little early so filled the time with an Ice Cream. The Ice Cream man knew we we English as we ordered a 99’ and only English people order these apparently! Hot Water Beach is a stretch of golden sand which has hot water springs rising through it. When we arrived the beach looked deserted, however as we got closer to the thermal area it was absolutely rammed with people everywhere furiously digging pools which we then destroyed by the incoming waves. We eventually managed to find a spring and dug our own little pool to sit in. The water bubbling through was hotter than a bath but when mixed with the sea water it was a perfect temperature – very relaxing!

We drove to the campsite up the road and parked opposite another van the same as ours – called CONGO. On further inspection its registration was actually only one digit away from ours – they must have been brothers! We had a quick chat with the German man and his son who were using CONGO and they also loved him! 

To reward our digging efforts we bought fish and chips at the campsite. Not as good as in the UK but we enjoyed them and they filled us up. They were much better than pasta or rice!!