Day 3 NZ - 3/1/2011

Another great day today with absolutely beautiful weather – 26 – 30 degrees and cloudless.

I don’t think I mentioned that yesterday we ordered fish n chips for dinner and had to wait about an hour for them to be ready. Fortunately they were worth it.

Today we headed off to Cathedral Cove which was east of Whitianga and again it is a stunning place. A 45 minute walk led us to an amazing inlet which was a little too crowded for our liking (although it was no wonder given that it was 1- a beautiful day, 2 – it’s a public holiday and 3 – it’s the New Years weekend). We then visited Hahei Beach, the Hot Water Beach which was totally bizarre, Cooks Beach and Lonely Bay.

Five strange things today

1 – it seems to be allowed that around town you can ride in the back of a ute or a boat on a trailer. We even saw a police car pass a boat loaded with 4 or 5 people – no problem.

2 – many people use tractors to tow their boat to the launching ramp – not too sure why and most of them are not registered. Perhaps they don’t want to expose the Range Rover to salt water.

3 – Hot Water Beach – as we walked towards the area, we saw over 100 people in a very small area. On closer inspection, they had dug holes (or baths perhaps) in the sand so reach the water table. The water oozes out of the ground at about 60 degrees so they just sit there in a ‘bath’. You can even buy a small spade at the local general store to help you dig.

4 – At Hahei we saw an old couch on wheels with a lady sitting on it. She had a bike helmet and a spare. We moved to the back to see that it had a number plate so it was registered! A moment later a man comes out of the shop, puts the helmet on, starts it up and then drives away. The thing is that they were sitting sideways! Pity we didn't have the camera handy.

5 – on our return to Whitianga, we went to the supermarket and it was PACKED. We joined the EXPRESS register line behind no less than 30 people in the queue! You should have seen the normal registers.

A lovely dinner of takeaway Thai, followed by an ice cream cone chaser, a walk down to the ferry again, and then back to the room for checking photo’s etc.

Tomorrow we are getting away early for our drive to Lake Taupo visiting Rotorua on the way. Great times!

I also booked us into a Motel next to the ChristChurch Airport for our 6.50AM flight back to Melbourne. Who was the idiot who booked a flight THAT early! Thankfully the car hire place turns out to be next door to the Motel - complete fluke - and the motel offers a 24hr shuttle to the airport which is only 1 km away.