Hot Water Beach (for Jan. 13)

We made a short trip to take pictures of where we blew the tire, although the lighting was different, the hit the road about 9:30 AM. The roads didn’t follow the coast like yesterday, but the were much the same: up and down, back and forth, with many turns at 35 kmph and some at 25 kmph. It kind of reminds me of the old road across Vancouver Island to Long Beach, if you have ever been on it. Except this goes on all day. We figured our average speed at 60 kmph.

We arrived at Hot Water Beach at 11 AM. Low tide was at 1:26 PM, so, since we were so close, we decided to hang around. We walked the beach, returned to the car, had some lunch and, about noon, we headed out to watch the action. Cold Water Beach would have been a better description on our beach walk. Yikes! Straight from the Antarctic. Not like Fiji, where the ocean was almost bath water warm.

It was a bit windy and wavy, so people were having trouble digging their holes. The idea is that you dig a hole in the sand and it fills up with hot water from underground springs that are only exposed at low tide. People were frantically digging away, but every few minutes a wave would wash over their handiwork, eroding their dikes and filling their holes with sand and cold water. Nevertheless, a few keeners managed to get little puddles started and you could see steam blowing off the water in them. We never got right into the action, as it was a crowded scene and we really didn’t want to spend too much time. Let someone else do all the dirty work and we will stand around and take pictures.

We left about 12:30 and arrived at Rotorua around 4PM. Except for the last hour, the roads were all as described previously. It is kind of interesting at first, but gets pretty tedious after several hours.

Rotorua is a geothermal area and a traditional Maori area. Mmmmm! Sulphur smell. Tomorrow we will take in some of the attractions and look after our car tire. This evening we took in some of the motel attractions, like their free washers and dryers! Their pool is heated to 30 degrees C. Very nice. They also have 6 separate private hot tubs heated to 40 degrees C. Tried them too.

We had a little taste of home this evening. We were in a grocery store and saw a door to a separate room marked “Delicatessen.” We wandered in to discover a huge walk-in refrigerator set a “very cold.” Not conducive to leisurely comparison shopping! They could have made a bundle from a jacket concession outside.

We thought that this motel was perfect until we found that they have Internet connections, but no actual Internet. You have to dial up an ISP or, they have a wireless hotspot. We will get ourselves all ready to go tonight and get a wireless connection tomorrow.