Thursday 23rd Feb. Hahei (24 degrees)

This morning we had booked ourselves into a sea-kayak tour to see Cathedral Cove and other areas of beauty along the coast. Rob was so good, as I know kayaking is not his favourite activity and yet he was happy to do it with me so we could share a double kayak. We arrived at the designated meeting place at Hahei beach and were taken by a mini-bus to “Cook’s Beach” (named after Captain Cook who landed there for shelter to see the eclipse of Mercury and Venus.) After the obligatory safety talk we set off. We were in a group of 3 double kayaks and our tour leader, Karissa. The weather was fairly good with no wind although there was quite a swell but luckily no white-caps! We paddled around the coast with Karissa pointing out various points of interest. When we arrived close to Cathedral Cove, we enjoyed the spectacular sight of the cove. The tide was high as was the swell so we were unable to kayak into the cave and cove. Due to storm damage from the cyclone the walk down to the Cathedral Cove beach was closed and even if we could have reached the beach, we wouldn’t have been allowed to land on the beach as geo-technicians have deemed it unsafe. The walk-way has disappeared too!  We continued on and managed quite well. After about 2 hours of paddling, we arrived back at Hahei beach. The reason we had done the trip this way was due to the big swell at the beach so now we had to ride the waves into the shore. Out at sea we were given instructions to follow and our guide kayaked into shore and then started giving signals for each group. All three kayaks made it safely in although we did see another double-kayak in another group go over in the swell, luckily everyone was fine and managed to get out even if they did end up a little wet. We finished up on the grassy area above the beach having freshly brewed coffee and biscuits. It was a wonderful experience. Karissa said that the afternoon group had been cancelled due to a change in the weather so we were happy we managed to do it. We returned to our accommodation for lunch and a tropical downpour! Following lunch we decided to venture down to the aptly named Hot Water Beach. Here, geothermally heated water seeps up through the sand. We were wearing our bathers as we thought we may want to dig a hole in the sand and create our own mineral pool but changed our minds when we walked down to the beach area. There were over 100 people there at least all in a small area digging holes in the sand. Rob and I found some of the areas where the water was warm and also very hot. We had fun people watching as they tried to dig a spa hole only to have it swamped by the big swell that was rolling in. (This was happening even though we had supposedly arrived at the correct time to be there, tide-wise.) In some areas the water was extremely hot. Anyway after 20 minutes or so we started to head back to the car-park just as the heavens opened. We ended up a little wet but it didn’t matter. We returned to our accommodation to clean up and get ready to go out to dinner.