Day 9 - Thursday : Hot Water Beach and Whitianga
You would have thought that by now, the chickens, ducks, cats and dogs would have realised that we are the sort of people who follow instructions. So when Fiona asked us politely not to feed the animals (except the pigs - but they weren't circling our apartment staring at us with longing soulful eyes), we didn't. No snacks or tidbits for you lot.
We grabbed a quick breakfast because this morning we were off to see the other famous landmark of the Coromandel - Hot Water Beach. It is so named because 1) it's a beach, and 2) it has hot water.
When the tide is low, hot bubbling springs rise up through the sand, so if you go armed with a spade, you can dig your very own Jacuzzi.
We were warned to get there about 2 hours before low tide. as it gets very busy and all the best "hot spots" will be taken. Low tide was at 9.10 am, so following that advice would have meant getting there just after 7am. Well as dedicated as we are to seeing everything in it's full glory - there are limits; and getting up at 5.30 to see a beach was one step too far. As it happens, neither of us were feeling that great either.Â
We were still knackered from our marathon wet suited trek the day before,
I had developed my first head cold in 5 years
Lottie had a horrible pain in her shoulder and neck, that had been with her since we got off the plane and she had gone through all her pain killers.
We were both suffering from PTSD from the US election result
So we decided to ignore all the friendly helpful advice we'd been given and get there when we felt like it.
We arrived at about 9.30, without spades and made our way to the beach ( along with 50,000 other people - well at least 50 anyway)
Usually when you see a load of people all crowded around a certain spot on a beach, it means .......
a) Someone has drowned - or
b) a Great White Shark has been washed ashore - or
c) Someone's child has wandered off and a search party is being organised.
In this case, everyone was huddled around the "hot area". Home made Jacuzzi's had been carefully crafted - one on top of each other and all stuffed to the brim with smug early risers who had commandeered their spot and were not moving for anything.
I got quite excited when I spotted a couple of holes that had been abandoned, but as I stepped inside, I realised why - freezing cold.
However, undaunted, we weaved in and out of the masses to claim a standing room only spot, right in front of the largest, most impressive hole. Here the sand was delightfully warm and by wiggling around a bit we managed to bury our feet, so giving ourselves a sort of free spa pedicure.
There was one little trickle of water, which on paper, looked absolutely identical to all the other pleasantly warm ones. Except it wasn't.  The temperature must have been at boiling point and some of the smug Jacuzzi people were having great fun telling innocent bystanders to step in that stream - it's lovely. The result was grown adults hopping about like lunatics screeching at the top of their voices.
I'm very glad, no-one tried to pull that one on me. I lose all my sense of humour when I don't feel well and could have easily ended up punching someone in the face.
We spent a couple of lovely relaxing hours on the beach - well as lovely as they can be with a constantly running nose and a thumping headache for me and a very hurty shoulder/neck for Lottie.
I think a nice Hot Springs Jacuzzi would have done us both the world of good, but sadly, we couldn't get near the best places and we didn't bring spades!
What we really needed next was some lunch and some medication, so we set of for Whitianga (pronounced fityenga) a town that looked slightly bigger on the crappy, fold out, free, AA map. ( I was still hopeful I would find a proper road atlas, but still no joy as yet). However, as we had already learned, appearances can be deceptive.
One "town" we passed consisted of a few houses and just three shops. A bakery, a dairy and a shop selling kitchen worktops!!! "Need anything from the shops dear", "Oh yes, if you're going, could you pick me up some milk, a pie and a nice kitchen worktop please".
So Whitianga was a pleasant surprise - still only one main street, but it had a wide variety of nice shops including the all important Pharmacy and a choice of restaurants and cafe's.
The Pharmacist sold me some stuff that was guaranteed to blast the cold out of my system and recommended some super strength pain killers for Lottie. ( and they worked really really well - yay!)
We keep forgetting that mealtimes in New Zealand tend to be bit earlier than the UK and hours earlier than in Spain, so on a few occasions we have only just managed to grab some food before they close. We picked out a nice café that was number 2 on trip advisor (number 1 wasn't vegetarian friendly) and walked in. It was only about 2.15 but the girl behind the counter became very anxious when we said we wanted lunch. Clearly distraught, that she may not be able to be helpful, friendly and deliver great customer service, she said she would have to check. We told her not to worry as there were lot's of delicious looking options in the display cabinets. Overcome with relief she took our order and a few minutes later brought our Feta Cheese tartlets to our table outside. Two minutes later a blackboard went out announcing that they were very sorry but they were now closed. I found this a little odd as the Blackboard inside had clearly offered an all day menu.
Maybe evening starts at half past two in this neck of the woods.!
We were also concerned that they may not sell us the yummy looking Rhubarb & Apple cake and Thick Chocolate Brownie we had spotted earlier.
On the strict understanding that we would take the cakes away with us, they were happy to take our money.
We had them at home, with a nice cup of tea, surrounded by the cat, the dogs the ducks and the chickens.
As we were leaving next morning, we did our packing and popped back to the Coroglen Arms to get a take away.
When we pulled up, we thought we must have come to the wrong place. Last night there had been one lone truck and Bertha in the car park. Tonight the place was rammed. Cars, trucks and vans, as far as the eye could see.
Inside, there were people everywhere and heaps of bar staff running around like headless chickens. Apparently it was darts night and it seemed like everyone within a 50 mile radius must have been there. We were even given one of those beeping flashy light thingys to let us know when our food was ready.
It didn't take long and we headed back to our lovely apartment to eat our fish & chips in our pyjamas!
We had an early night ready for the next stage of our journey, because tomorrow.............
We were going on a adventure!!