Warming my feet.
Jan Eric from Norway, my room mate.
The view of Cathedral Cove from the top.
Monday, January 4th.
Got up early and
headed down for a lousy continental breakfast. One of our group, a
doctor from Wisconsin named Richard, got stuck in the elevator for 70
minutes when all he wanted was to go for an early run.
We loaded up the trailer and boarded the van and drove out of Auckland towards the Hahei area of the Coromandel peninsula. We stopped at a cafe where we could have something a little more substantial. Then we went to a beach called 'the hot water beach'. New Zealand sits upon a very active thermal area and two kilometres below the beach there is a pool of water super heated by magma that heats up a small area of the beach. When you stand on the sand you can feel your feet get very hot even though the waves are coming in and washing over the area. At low tide it would be very hot to stand there. Nice beach too although today it was 'rough as guts'.
From there we continued on to Cathedral Cove where we went on a 45 minute hike down the cliff to a beautiful cove with a great beach and rugged islands just off shore. After we climbed back up we journeyed to our home for the night, Baileys on Buffalo Beach. Lovely place with really big suite with two bedrooms. So Jan Eric and I have our own rooms in essence. Then Max, our tour guide, Jan Eric, Marie and I went to the grocery store to buy food for a bbq and I bought some sunscreen, lotion and a six pack.
When we got back I went for a brief walk on Buffalo Beach, but it was cool and very windy, so I went back to the room to read. The bbq dinner was good fun with everyone pitching in and lots of hamburgers, sausages and salad all washed down with a couple of beer and good conversations.
We loaded up the trailer and boarded the van and drove out of Auckland towards the Hahei area of the Coromandel peninsula. We stopped at a cafe where we could have something a little more substantial. Then we went to a beach called 'the hot water beach'. New Zealand sits upon a very active thermal area and two kilometres below the beach there is a pool of water super heated by magma that heats up a small area of the beach. When you stand on the sand you can feel your feet get very hot even though the waves are coming in and washing over the area. At low tide it would be very hot to stand there. Nice beach too although today it was 'rough as guts'.
From there we continued on to Cathedral Cove where we went on a 45 minute hike down the cliff to a beautiful cove with a great beach and rugged islands just off shore. After we climbed back up we journeyed to our home for the night, Baileys on Buffalo Beach. Lovely place with really big suite with two bedrooms. So Jan Eric and I have our own rooms in essence. Then Max, our tour guide, Jan Eric, Marie and I went to the grocery store to buy food for a bbq and I bought some sunscreen, lotion and a six pack.
When we got back I went for a brief walk on Buffalo Beach, but it was cool and very windy, so I went back to the room to read. The bbq dinner was good fun with everyone pitching in and lots of hamburgers, sausages and salad all washed down with a couple of beer and good conversations.
Hot Water Beach sounds good...it is -15 here...you got out just in time!
ReplyDeleteMike
Hi Joe, reliving your fun times and the nice weather.
ReplyDelete