Running with the Ward's: 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!

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.