We left for New Zealand at 5:30 am on January 1. Our flight didn't leave until about 9:30 in the morning but we had to be early and it was a good thing that we were. Mark and I had to get new passports while we were in Australia as they expired in March and we wouldn't have been able to travel to New Zealand or the US if we didn't renew them. So, when we got our passports we just assumed all would be well. But in order to travel in and out of Australia you need a Visa. We had one when we came and it was electronically attached to all our passports. But when we renewed the passports the Visa didn't automatically carry forward. It wasn't a huge deal but it did add about 45 minutes to getting through security and made it a little tight for time. I think the flight was about 3 and a half hours (which by the way Adam and Mark got an upgrade to first class while the rest of us squished into economy:) Anyhow, by the time we landed, got our ground tranaportation and checked into our hotel we basically drove around a bit, had dinner and then went to bed.
We got up in Auckland first thing and headed to Coromandel Beach. We were told this hot beach was a fun one to visit. I think about a million other people were given the same information as it was BUSY! Not just busy, crazy busy. You walked onto the beach and saw just a few people around, it was lovely. We started walking to the right, turned the corner and BAM.... TONS of people!
Hot Water Beach is a popular tourist destination. A geothermal-heated hot spring filters up through the sand; dig into the sand and create your own spa pool. This happens twice a day, in low tide for about two hours each time. I was amazed at what a small area was affected by this hot spring (and just how many people could squeeze into this area!) We rented a shovel and the kids had fun digging in some holes that were already dug up. We didn't stay too long as the water was shockingly HOT and the people there were a little possessive with "their" pools so we just wandered back down to the dead end of the beach, walked through the water and dug in some sand. It was a nice start to our day.
A very crowded beach!
Posted by: Gramma | 01/21/2015 at 08:14 PM