We packed up from an impressive campsite and left for Hot Water Beach. You need to arrive between two hours before and two hours after low tide. If you go later there is a chance It might be crowded or you might be able to take over someone else’s already dug pool.

This is one of the few times I have come across pay and display car parks at the coast in NZ. We parked on a dirt car park and walked into the village. On the way we hired a spade for $5NZ, with a $20NZ deposit. Further in, they were hiring at the same price but no deposit.

The beach is well provided for in terms of showers, loos and life guards. A short walk along the beach you can see people furiously digging their hollows in the sand to a depth where there is water. Some high up the beach, and others low down. We sampled a few abandoned pits to find cool or tepid water in them. We were beginning to think this was a con. So I set about digging my own pool a few meters up from the water line, but inline with some rocks in the sea. I was soon down to the water-level and…..it was hot; so hot I could barely put my foot in for a second. We abandoned this one, and moved forward to the water’s edge. Here I could mix the cold sea water with the water in the sand to get a reasonable temperature.  R was entertained by people asking if they could try our first pool and then shrieking with pain & surprise. It was rather like putting your feet in boiling water and having your ankles drop off. My first pool was judged the hottest on the beach. R thought the whole thing was rather like a male bird building an exquisite nest to attract mates.

I also swam on the beach. There was a lovely surf for body surfing on. Very refreshing.

We packed up and continued our journey. This was a long journey as I wanted to camp near to the next day’s feature, Hobbiton. We drove down to Tauranga, and tried to visit Mount Maunganui. This took us near to the port where cruise liners and container ships dropped. We also saw a huge area of cut tree trucks. This must be the destination of all the felled trees we kept seeing on the road.

Traffic was horrendous on the roads around here, one slipup had us having to retrace our steps in a 30 minute traffic jam.  Who builds a dual carriage-way, and then finds the junction of one of the routes out (the way we wanted to go) is subject to a level crossing with freight trains using it.  The longest slowest empty log train made it to the crossing as we reached it. Yes, we had prime view.

Our destination for the night was McLaren Falls Park. For $20 dollars you can camp in the park on three designated camp sites. There is a single loo on each site, so you don’t actually have to be self-contained. We parked at the edge looking out over the lake where there were some very noisy ducks, coots, black swans and geese.  After we set-up, a few other vans and tents arrived. It was not crowded, but probably the busiest site we had been on.

The ranger who came by to verify we had paid suggested visiting the glow worm area. This was a narrow, dank path along a river. Going up the path to the waterfall it was still too light to see the  glow works, but coming back they were out. We could see them on both sides of the river. They were an impressive display.

Back at the site it was dark, I tried searching for bats, but again failed. The stars were bright, the Milky Way was very prominent.