26th February Playing King Canute

Another drizzly day but with warm, dry spells there was no stopping us from exploring.

First stop was HaHei beach just north of us. A lovely sandy beach but not tempting enough for us to take the plunge.

We had then originally planned to go snorkeling at Gemstone Bay as there is a snorkel trail. Unfortunately we recently found out that the Cathedral Cove walk that takes you there is closed due to a landslide. So we thought we'd go to the lookout point to check out the view.

Unfortunately that was closed as well!

We did manage to quickly park the car and take a few snaps of Mercury Bay. This is where Captain Cook first sailed in before landing in NZ.

Then we drove a few miles further up the coast to Cook's Beach. Another gorgeous beach.

Our drive for the morning finished at the ferry crossing to Whitianga. A foot passenger ferry that runs continuously all day for just $8 (about £4 return).

Amy got all excited when we landed as she found a digger in the playground. Brought back memories of her and Peter using one on previous holidays when they were much smaller 😄.

We stopped for a coffee and saw these in the cooler. Not sure they'd get away with their labelling in the UK 🤔.

That's why I do a blog .... to help me remember!

Local street art of Captain cook's arrival.

Lunch today was recommended by a local shopkeeper - it included battered mussels and battered crab sticks (both new to us). An interesting combination and maybe not one to be repeated. We prefer moules in a French marinere style.

On our potter around we found a natty mozzie/bug killer - you turn it on and take a swipe at them! We'll have to get one for Spain.

Back to our chalet we walked to Hot Water Beach in our swimwear - Ian is really into the very bared legs look.

Basically there are 2 hot water springs that run under the beach, bubbling and steaming up through the sand. They are accessible 2 hours before and after low tide, with low tide at about 3.45pm today. This meant as we'd arrived just before 5pm that the sea was coming in.

Using our borrowed spade we worked with others to secure the walls of our hot pool to keep the encroaching sea out. We had quite a fun time sitting in our pool, in the rain with a UK couple on a camper van tour of NZ and another USA couple securing our walls.

Back in 2008 in NZ winter it wasn't as busy.

Same style of swimwear but slightly greyer (I could also say less of it as well but he did cut it yesterday).

Waiting for the next big wave.

After being lightly poached we decided on a return to our chalet to use the warm plunge pool and showers. Now it's dinner time (using up our last few food items before we fly to Oz) and a chilled evening (getting used to a cider or 2 in the evening).

Tomorrow we head to Auckland for a few nights and a chance to get up Skytower.