Tairua was the perfect place for a few daytrips, so we took a short but brisk walk up Paku, an old volcano. Apparently this means we'll return again in 7 years - fine by us. Here's the views we saw. Pretty.
We also got ourselves into hot water, quite literally, on Hot Water Beach. For an hour or so either side of low tide, you can take advantage of the volcanic water bubbling under your feet, dig a hole in the sand, and make your own hot tub (how cool is that?!), so we hired ourselves a spade, dug a pool, and jumped on in.
It was tricky to find the right spot, as some were too cold, and others scalding hot, but we inherited a great little pool full of warm water (from some previous diggers) with a little stream of boiling water running into it, and a well of scalding water bubbling underneath. When it rained we just dug our bums in a bit deeper, tapped into the super hot bit, and re-heated our pool. Perfect!
We're leaving the comfort of the Shirlow/ Hutchinson bosom tomorrow morning (sob), for some extreme sport adventures in Rotorua. Thanks to Warwick and Clare for the use of their home and for their help planning our route around the Northland; Ness and Rob for being delightful and fattening us up with their amazing hospitality; Jacson for being completely nuts; and Carys for being lovely and smiling a lot. We'll truly miss you guys.
Debs
BTW, Ben just posted another blog post about 3 posts down, which he says people with an rss feed will see, but for those of us who aren't into that kind of thing, thought I'd give you the heads up to click here to read it.
