Day 03 - Monday 15th September

We woke to a bright sunny day with the morning sun shining through the windows of the unit. It was a pleasant start to the day with breakfast on the balcony or back inside the unit when it became too sunny.

I went down to reception to book a coastal tour by boat. Alan told me that his original suggestion was not avilable since the owners had gone to Australia because their daughter was about to give birth. Instead he suggested the glass bottom boat tour.

We arrived at the Whitianga wharf at 10:10am ready for the 10:30 trip. There was one couple already on board who turned out to be from South Africa originally. They got married a week ago and were on their honeymoon. The driver's name was Mark and another person on board was Mark's father who was visiting from the south island.

The boat trip headed south to various locations such as Cathedral Cove, Champaigne Bay  and Orua Seacake. Along the way we had plenty of opportunities to take photos of the coastline including caves, rock formations, cliffs, beaches and seaside towns.

One of the highlights was sighting three or four dolphins perfoming for us.

Mark opened the lid from the glass bottom so we could see the fish in various spots. The fish included snapper and blue cod. At one stage he stopped for snorkling - the only taker was the South African man.

It was a fabulous trip with great scenery. An excellent morning.

After going back to the motel, we ventured out for lunch and had a nice light meal at The Landing Cafe at an outside table under a large umbrella in the sunshine overlooking the sea.

Our internet connection wasn't working and so we concluded that we'd used up out 1GB limit on the SIM card we'd bought at the airport. When we tried to top it up on my iPad, it gave us strange messages and so we set off to find a Vodafone shop.

Not far away we found an electrical retailer who sold Voafone goods. He tried lots of options and concluded the only solution was to give up on my Australian device and buy a Vodafone device from him. It seemed to work and so we were happy to have a connection again.

Suzy went shopping for wool and I walked back to our motel.

Our plan for this afternoon was to visit Hot Water Beach - a natural hot water spring. We'd been told that we had to get there near low tide which was due at 5:30pm.

We set out at about 3:45pm and went first to Shakespeare Cliff near Cook Beach - about 40 minutes on a windy road through the green countryside with cattle and sheep in the pastures along the way. The view from the lookout was spectacular - a 360 degree view of the bays and townships.

Next was Hot Water Beach. From the carpark, we could see a small crowd on the the sand near a cliff about 100m along the beach. As we approached, there were dozens of people who'd already dug holes in the sand and were sitting in the hot water that was seeping into the holes.

We found the South African couple there. They'd already dug a hole and were happy for us to join them. We helped widen the hole and control the flow of hot water. As I walked around taking photos, I had to be careful not to burn my bare feet because the water was very hot in some places.

For dinner, we'd booked to go to Squids Restaurant near the marina at Whitianga. It was an enjoyable seafood dinner. Just as we were starting our  main course, the South African couple arrived.