Winter at Hot Water Beach

A few weeks ago, Justin and I took a trip to the Coromandel with our neighbors and friends, Peter and Rebecka.  We stayed in Hahei at Tatahi Lodge but the purpose of our trip was to visit Hot Water Beach in the winter.  Justin and I visited Hot Water Beach during the summer but did not take part in the hot tub digging and soaking.  Rebecka insisted it was worth the time and effort and would be even more fun with a slight chill in the air.

View on the drive to Coromandel Town

Tatahi Lodge

We drove down to the Coromandel on Saturday and took the scenic route through Coromandel Town since Justin and I had not visited that area before.  We had lunch at a cute cafe and Peter, Rebecka, and I all enjoyed the fresh Mussels. 

Coromandel Town

After lunch, we took a hike to New Chums Beach. New Chums is rated as one of the top beaches in New Zealand and it was beautiful.  However, the hike to the beach proved a bit of a challenge as the track was extremely  muddy in places and extremely rocky in other places.  Combine this with our lack of hiking shoes and the hike turned into an adventure!  Not to mention we incorporated some tree climbing and monkey sounds into our hike!

Did I forget to mention J's shoes were so unsuitable he had to hike barefoot?

Peter and Rebecka waiting on New Chum's beach

I promise we were really high in the tree!

We arrived in Hahei in time to take a quick walk along the beach before enjoying a fresh vegetarian dinner prepared by Rebecka.

We are laughing at Peter b/c this is about the 5th angle he took a photo of us from!

The next morning we set out fairly early for Hot Water Beach.  You need to arrive at the beach at least one hour before low tide in order to find a spot to dig a natural hot tub and then have time to enjoy the fruits of your labor.  We found a nice spot with plenty of hot water and dug a nice big tub.  We spent the next few hours lounging in our tub and running across the beach to cool off in the ocean.  We had to run as the area between our tub and the ocean was quite literally boiling in spots!

We got to hot water beach pretty early!

Justin and Rebecka did most of the digging.  Notice the steam!

Peter, Rebecka, and me enjoying the natural hot tub!

Panorama of Hot Water Beach.

View of our hot rub into the ocean

After our fun at Hot Water Beach, we drove back to Auckland and enjoyed a pizza dinner at That's Amore (half price pizza on Sundays). What a great weekend away from the city with friends!