63 and free

Whitianga is our favourite place so far. Not only is it noticeably warmer than anywhere else we have visited so far, the beauty of the surrounding area is on a new level.

Like every other tourist to New Zealand, we went to the nearby “Hot Water Beach”. Geo-thermally heated water bubbles up from below…but only in a very small area.

Finding the right mix of cool seawater from the surf and hot water from below is a challenge. One can easily burn a foot here.

Our conclusion:

Arrive one hour AFTER the low tide mark. Everyone else arrives 2 or more hours BEFORE the low tide mark to find the best spots and dig, dig, dig. Three hours later most people have left and it’s easy pickings. 😁

The “hot water area” was tiny. That allowed us to gawk at what was around us.

Then it was on to “Cathedral Cove”. It was only a 10 minute drive from “Hot Water Beach”, but that was only the start. It took a park & ride, then a 40 minute hike over the slopes of two mountains to get there. More STEEP slope changes than a hike in the Rockies!! And about 200 near-vertical steps (think quasi-ladder). 😠

Bernie was a happy girl.

🙄😬

The name is rather appropriate:

It was off-scale beautiful.

The cost/benefit analysis came out about level. 😏