Everybody warned us. Don’t expect the roads in New Zealand to be like those in South Africa. For the record, South Africa has better highways and motorways. The road to the Coromandel was like Van Reenen’s pass but much more windy and steep. And it just kept going – sharp turn left, sharp turn right, up and down. The recommended speed limit at some stages was 35km/hr and mostly 45 – 55.. We left soon after lunch and arrived after 7. We travelled about 150km. Finally we arrived at Hot Water Beach. The credit card machine wouldn’t recognise our card but they were able to do a manual entry. Sigh. The reception was very bad so our broadband hardly worked.
However it was a stunning campsite. It had a large kitchen with 8 – 10 pots, 3 cookers with 4 plates each, a microwave, toaster, dishwashing liquid supplied. Outside were two gas braais and seating for you to enjoy your meat. There was a trampoline and a bouncing pillow, children’s play park, washing machines and tumble dryers.
The Mercedes motorhome (campervan in NZ) is stunning. It is much more spacious than cubby. You push a switch and the geyser lights, giving you hot water in about 5 minutes. There is space to work on the counter tops. The only thing I think Cubby has better is the wardrobe. We are sleeping on top like we do in our own motorhome, climbing up an aluminium ladder that has once fallen down and left me stranded on top.
Next day at the appropriate time, an hour before low tide, armed with a complimentary spade, we made our way to Hot water beach. We had been told that you could dig a hole and it would fill with hot water. The closer you got to the sea, the cooler. There were warnings saying that the water reached a temperature of 65 degrees and to exercise caution. We decided to be cautious and dug near the sea.
Nothing but cold water.. Only about one in twenty pools got hot water and they tended to be large holes dug by groups of young people. People would come past asking “have you got hot water?” The successful saunas were widely dispersed – one at a level we were, one much higher – and one much farther to the left. We decided to abandon our hole and go higher up where we found an empty and abandoned hole. The young guys with the successful hole had dug really deep so we set out to dig very deep.
Still people came round asking “Do you have hot water?” I was beginning to think it was all tourist hype and that there was, in fact, no hot water. I walked down to the sea again to have a bit of a paddle when I felt it – trickling from somewhere higher up was very hot water. I had to run into the sea to prevent burnt feet. so we started digging again, right where the waves kept coming and filling up our hole. Finally one of the successful owners of a sauna nearby offered us theirs as they were leaving but it was, in fact, too hot for us and we gave it away in turn to another group.Now I understand the expression to hotfoot it out of somewhere.
Wednesday morning we left reasonably early. It was raining so we abandoned our thoughts of visiting Cathedral cove. goodbye Hot Water Beach.
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