Hot Water Beach and Cathedral Cove

Our next destination was Hot Water Beach, one of lonely planets top 10 beaches in the world! The beach is famous for being able to dig yourself a pool, and have warm water surround you like a bath! Our new driver for the Kiwi bus was Arius, and he was a cool and honest guy about some of the activities. If he liked it it, it was "choice" which means pretty good to Kiwis!

The drive from Auckland to Hot Water Beach wasn't too long, and it was a great opportunity to get to know our friends some more. Again, we drove threw some beautiful places, with Arius telling us about the surrounding areas.

 Arius also told us the activity opportunities on Hot Water Beach. He said there was the legendary Cathedral Cove just a 45 minute walk down from Hot Water Beach. He said the walk was very pretty, but the best way to get there was to kayak there, in the crystal clear waters of the marine reserve, where there was also the potential to spot dolphins, seals, and maybe even whales! This sounded exciting, so ourselves and Mark signed up to do it for $85.00 each.

The accommodation at Hot Water Beach were little cabins for up to 6 to share. The two of us with Mark included were in one room, with John and David, two lovely lads from the bus, but we were also joined by a woman called Isabelle, who had been in Hot Water Beach a few days, and who thought Mark looked like Maralin Manson without the makeup!! We had time to dump our bags before being picked up by the kayaking company to do our trip! David and Isabelle from our room would be joining us, as well as traveller Mindy was going to be doing the trip with us so she document it on her blog.

We were taken to a beach, where we met another cool Kiwi called Hayden, who was a long haired surfer dude. He told us how to use our Kayaks and how to wear the equipment. Tom and Steph shared a Kayak, Mark went with David, Isabelle went with another girl who joined the trip and Mindy went with Hayden, and we set off into the crystal clear waters of the Marine reserve. As it was coming into Winter, the water was VERY cold, and kayaking against some of the waves to get into the depths was a chilly experience! Nevertheless, the sun was shining for us, and the afternoon light made it a very beautiful trip. 

We would occasionally stop and gather our Kayaks together so Hayden could tell us about some of the geography and wildlife surrounding the marine reserve. At one point, he was talking, and Mindy and Steph were shaking excidedly and whispering to eachother at the front of the Kayaks. They had seem a burst of water come from the water a way in front of us, and were convinced it was the blow holes of a whale.

We had to just kayak around a corner before we were in Cathedral Cove, so we powered as fast as we could to get a glimpse of the supposed whale. As we neared the cove however, we realised it was a rogue snorkeller, who had dived deep down and come up and blown water out of his snorkel. Thankfully we saw the funny side, but we were more concerned as to what he was doing in the chilly waters!

We pulled up to the shore, where we could admire the beautiful naturally formed arch. Unfortunately Tom's GoPro had drops of water on the lens from Kayaking, and Steph's camera was out of battery, so our pictures from Cathedral Cove are all stolen! Here is one we had to get of Google to show the full rock jutting out with the large archway carved in.

Lots of people take their wedding pictures under this iconic arch, hence it's name Cathedral Cove. There are also some beautifully carved rocks around the area that sit peacefully in the sea. Here are some of Mindy's pictures from the day

You may also recognise the scenery from a music video by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis. Hayden explained one day he kayaked up to the beach to find a random chair on the beach. As there was no one there, he decided he would tie it to the back of his Kayak and take it home. Just as he had it slung over his shoulder, he was chased by film directors explaining its use for the music video. Have a look and spot it below.

Whilst at the beach, we met up with some of our other friends who were on the bus, who had decided to do the walk. We agreed to meet them back at the hot water beach later on, for a legendary natural spa session. We took a few pictures and looked around, and played in a small waterfall on the beach, when Hayden called us over to a picnic spot he'd made. He bought supplies for making hot drinks in his Kayak, and was also an undercover Barista! He could list of more drinks than Starbucks and also did cute smiley faces on our drinks as well as bringing some homemade biscuits for us to dunk which were delicious.

This added touch was a really cosy and unexpected bonus, and we appreciate the effort he went too to make sure we got the most out of Cathedral Cove.

We finished up our drinks, which gave us the energy to kayak back round to Hot Water Beach. We now had a time limit as we wanted to enjoy the Hot Water Beach with everyone else on our bus. With another tiresome effort to get past the waves, we took another scenic route back home, where Hayden took us to a small tunnel on the edge of a large rock, which we were able to kayak through. We also spotted some baby seals perched on the rocks, as well as having the afternoon sun beating down on us.

It was a really lovely trip, and although we didn't see much wildlife, is was a really nice way to see Cathedral Cove, as well as a good workout!

We got back to Hot Water Beach and made our way down to the beach where we found throngs of people sitting in a pool. There was already a large one dug, so everyone was piled into that one.

The Hot Water Beach has volcanic lava running underneath it deep deep down. You wouldn't be able to dig deep enough to get to it (neither would you want to), but it means it heats up the water that is under the sand, which makes it such a famous New Zealand destination.

We nestled down and dug our feet in to the sand, to find the water was actually scorching hot! To put into perspective how hot it was, legend has it that when the first explorers came to New Zealand, the Maouri tribes captured them, and actually boiled them alive in this pools... ouch.

Iqra, John, David, Mark, Tom, Steph, Annie, Charlotte and Izzy

We were at Hot Water Beach just at sunset, so we watched the sunset from our warm pools which was a lovely experience.

Another one of Mindy's spectacular pictures of Hot Water Beach.

That night we had the idea to get up at 5am and watch the sun rise from the hot pools, however, we would see how that panned out at the crack of dawn. That evening we spent cooking and playing a few games of cards in our little lodge. The following day was one we had been eagerly anticipating, The Waitamo caves!