New Zealand - Dreamland!

Our final destination in New Zealand was Hot Water Beach.  It's in the Coromandel Peninsula.  Hot Water Beach is special because there is a thermal activity under the sand on the beach.  At low tide, the warm sand is exposed.  Everybody brings a shovel to the beach and digs a hole.  Warm water bubbles up from under the sand and a temporary hot tub is made!  It's amazing!  

Some friends of ours from Singapore met us at Hot Water Beach.  They are from NZ and it's a favorite destination of theirs.  We were thrilled to have friends to play with and a guide for this beautiful part of NZ.  

I thought the weather was still pretty cold, so it felt a little odd to be heading to the beach.  I was shocked at how hot the water could be.  Some of it was so hot that I thought I would burn my foot if I stayed on the hot sand more than a moment.  There was an art to getting the water to be just right.

We stayed at a campground at Hot Water Beach.  There is very limited accommodation there and the camp ground had villas that were fitted with everything we would need.  It turned out to be really nice!   The campground was beautiful and there were not a lot of people staying there, so it was quiet.

Our beautiful campground!

Hot Water Beach

A view of the action.  Everybody is digging.  We had to do some test digs before we found a good spot.

Wyatt LOVES the beach.  He will jump over the waves for hours if he is allowed. 

We drove up to Cathedral Cove.  Our first attempt, it started raining, so we decided to have lunch first and then return after. 

Gorgeous!  The day brightened up after lunch and was beautiful.

A scene from the hike down to Cathedral Cove.  The kids just loved having the space and freedom to run.  

Our friends said that in all the times they have come here, they haven't been able to walk through this cave.  We got lucky!

The kids thought this hill was just perfect for rolling down.  Too silly!

Back at the beach!

We took another day trip to a macadamia nut farm.  The farmer had some chickens that he asked the kids to catch to help him put them back in their cage.  The kids were thrilled to help!  Poor chickens.

A stroll though the nut farm.

Bee boxes.  It was fun to sit and watch the busy bees, however, they don't make for very interesting photos.

We hiked up to Shakespeare Cliff Scenic and Historic Reserve.  Stunning views!

Then we went to Cook's Beach.  Lily found a starfish and Wyatt found a sand dollar.  

Madeline collected a shirt full of shells.  

I just loved how the sunlight sparkled on the water.  

Well, it was awesome.  I love New Zealand.  We headed back to Auckland the next day and then flew our early the following morning.  The flight back to Singapore was long, but uneventful.  Another spectacular holiday!