Justin and I spent the long Auckland Anniversary weekend in the Coromandel. In New Zealand, each city gets a public holiday all its own for its anniversary. We stayed literally steps away from
Hot Water Beach in a small flat with amazing views of the beach and waves. We drove the 2 hours to the Coromandel on Saturday morning and then spent the rest of the day reading on the beach and body boarding in the waves! We observed the crazy "hot tub" digging at low tide but decided not to participate. A hot spring runs under the beach and at low tide, you can dig down and reach the boiling water. People flock to the beach the few hours either side of low tide and dig holes to lounge in their own hot tub. We ventured in to
Hahei (10 km away) for an early dinner at Luna Cafe before heading back to the beach for some surf fishing at dusk. We had an amazing dessert at Luna Cafe of apple/peach pie and bread and butter pudding.
 |
| View of Hot Water Beach from right outside our house |
 |
| Hot Water Beach warnings |
 |
| Justin fishing at dusk |
 |
| The craziness that is Hot Water Beach at low tide |
 |
| Some of the "hot tubs" |
 |
| Our little room |
The next morning, we returned to Luna Cafe for breakfast (don't judge...there are not many options in the area). We were scheduled to go on an adventure kayak trip but the weather was too rough so it was cancelled. There were also no swim signs posted at Hot Water Beach due to the wind and waves. So we ventured out in search of another surf spot. We ended up at Tairua Beach which was not crowded at all and offered some nice waves. For dinner we went to
Purangi Winery for wood fired pizzas. I had read good reviews of the place but we were not impressed as it was actually pretty dirty and run down. Unfortunately we had already ordered so we stayed and ate before taking off to
Mercury Bay for drinks. Mercury Bay Estate was much more our style and even had live music. We spent the rest of the evening on our patio admiring the view.
 |
| View on our drive after breakfast up to Shakespeare Cliff (do you like the photo editing?) |
 |
| Tairua Beach |
 |
| Purangi Winery....guess what kind of trees those are? |
 |
| That's right....kiwi fruit trees! |
 |
| View from our table at Mercury Bay Estate |
We went for breakfast at
Hot Waves Cafe where I had the kiwi classic, pancakes topped with bananas and bacon. Although I encountered a first in that this cafe left the peels on the bananas. After lunch we took a shuttle to the
Cathedral Cove track and then hiked about 30 minutes to the beach. The Cove was beautiful and well worth the trip. We spent some time on the beach but didn't stay too long. We took the scenic route back to Auckland along the coast and topped off our weekend with dinner at Mexico.
 |
| Banana and bacon topped pancakes at Hot Waves Cafe |
 |
| At the top of the track to Cathedral Cove |
 |
| View along the track |
 |
| Cathedral Cove |
 |
| Cathedral Cove |
 |
| The Ward's at Cathedral Cove |
1 comments:
Was "apple/peach pie and bread and butter pudding" a single dessert or two separate dishes? Either way, that sounds tasty.
I can't speak Kiwi, but if I read the symbols on the beach sign correctly, it says 1) if you jump up, raise your arms and do the splits, 2) if you ride a horse, do not try to ride up a cliff, 3) if you run while carrying a large branch, you will fall off a cliff, and 4) if you run on your hands while carrying that branch in your legs, you will fall in a hole.
Cathedral Cove looks interesting. We'll have to go there next time we are both in NZ together.