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Friday, November 16, 2012

Friday 16th November – Whitianga


Despite short sleep it was so nice to wake in a cosy, bed under non-rustly covers on a sunny day and jump in a hot shower. I got ready standing up for a welcome change and went to the house to chat to Lorna while Matt came round.

The theme of civilisation continued and we all went into the town to meet Geoff so we could have a coffee together. It was a very pleasant but strange sensation to feel part of a normal life for a while.

But it was such a nice day and we were in such a nice area that tourism called and we were soon off to see a few sights. First stop was Hot Water beach where it’s possible to dig down into the sand and release pool of thermal water to bathe in. This is only possible two hours either side of low tide because otherwise the sea is in the way so we took a wander down the beach for a while. We’ve had so much time near the sea but I’m struggling to recall any time we’ve spent actually on the beach, rather than just driving around the coast in the rain. I’ve never really considered myself a much of beach person but I found myself thinking about how much I missed running down the sand in Australia - it certainly seems a shame to have passed so much coastline and not had the weather to really enjoy it.

We made up for our lack of sunny beach exploring a little more by travelling to Cathedral Cove.  We were greeted at the car-park by startlingly blue waters and views over the whole bay, dotted with little islands. We took the walking path towards the cove itself and stopped briefly on the way to look at Stingray Bay, with its white cliffs, azure waters and even a picturesque old-fashioned-looking sailing boat moored nearby. It looked like a scene from a story book.

Further along, we reached Cathedral Cove. It was far more touristic but equally as lovely with its iconic giant arch carved from stone and the sparkling sea. We wandered for a while but weren't dressed or feeling particularly partial to basking and so took the flower-lined path back to the car-park, admiring the bright pink ‘elves hat stands’ on the way.

Back at Hot Water beach, it was odd to see the previously empty beach now with a big splodge of people in the middle, and even more heading towards it armed with spades. As we neared the crowds, we could steam rising from the little baths that people had dug for themselves. It was quite comical to see them all there looking like little birds in their little baths.

Despite seeing the steam, we stupidly marched straight into a spot where no-one had dug, not thinking that they might have a good reason, and promptly burnt our feet. Other places were cooler as the water from the sea merged with the thermal springs and we got to have a nice paddle.

Unfortunately, we had chores to do and needed to head back so we could prepare the car for its photo-shoot in order to be able to make an advert to sell it. It was great to be able to do it by moving our things into our temporary home rather than having them spread out in a car-park in the rain though, so once again we were grateful for our chance meeting with Geoff.

Our hosts were even more generous and were happy to let us hang around to make use of their internet to sort out more things, like communicating with my doctor over my stupid knees and finding out where the payment for 700quid to the credit card had gone. We felt a bit rude glued to the computer for the eve but hosts didn’t seem to mind at all and asked us if we’d like to stay for another night. It was great to snuggle on a sofa with the TV on in the background, sorting stuff out and chatting occasionally though. Pity it turned out that the online statements were just incomplete and that not only had the money arrived to the credit card, it had also been spent again twice over. Oops!

Climbing into the cosy bed for another night was a real treat and one that I’ll miss tomorrow I’m sure.

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