Coromandel Peninsula

We stayed at a cute place called "The Church" last night, here in Hahei, on the Coromandel Peninsula. We arrived in the evening, with everyone accounted for - we divided up Tony and Tom so that we wouldn't worry about losing them. It was dark when we got here, and the stars were amazing

Today we went over to Cathedral Cove in the morning. It was a beautiful, sunny day, and we had a great walk along the path down to the beach. The kids enjoyed playing in the waves, being burried in the sand, and just generally getting as sandy as possible. After hanging out for a couple of hours, we walked back up for more amazing views, and then went to the Luna Cafe for lunch. Tony, Tom, and the all kids except Maddy stayed at a playground by the cafe while Allie, Maddy, and I went back to our cottages for some reading and knitting.

A bit later we joined back up and headed over to Hot Water Beach. We were told to go there about an hour before low tide with spades in hand to dig ourselves a little "hot tub." When you start to dig just a bit into the sand in certain places along this beach, hot water comes up. And I don't mean warm water, I mean HOT - like that can burn you. So you have to find the right spot where you can get some cool ocean water easily into your "tub" while not digging too far out that the waves come and knock down your sand walls. We had some trouble achieving this, so after a few failed attempts of our own, we, thanks to the kids' friendliness, ended up moving in on other people's spots. It was great, except that we practically had to drag Allie and the kids out as it was getting so dark that we could barely find our way back to the parking lot. We went to the Grange Cafe for our last dinner together. Thanks to Tom for most of the pictures in the linked slideshow.