Hot Water Beach and the toy town

We’ve just had a spectaularly sunny Auckland Anniversary weekend, and we decided on a whim to visit the Coramandel.  The last minute planning meant we ended up in a Thames motel, and I’ll gloss over Thames (if you’ve got nothing good to say…), except to say that its main virtue is its location – a good launching pad for a trip around the Coramandel peninsula.  

The next morning we set off bright and early and drove up to Coramandel Town (on the west of the peninsula).  The road was extremely windy, and poor Madeleine felt awfully car-sick, so we stopped there for an iceblock and a lengthy play at the playground.  Then we set off for the east coast, driving across the peninsula to Whitianga.  On the way we passed gorgeous ribbons of golden beach, and after a quick stop for lunch at Whitianga (and a last minute dash to buy a shovel and a pair of togs for Andrew) we drove on to Hot Water Beach.

Hot Water Beach is a natural wonder.  Nestled in beneath a craggy cliff face, a small area of beach is blessed with hot water springs that well up from beneath the sand.  At low tide, people swarm over the beach to dig a hole which, if you’re lucky, will fill with warm water.  You have to dig to below the water table, but this isn’t too far and if you strike the right spot, you will be rewarded with a 100% natural, free hot water pool.  If you’re unlucky, you’ll find yourself sitting in a tepid puddle.  But then if you hang around long enough, someone in a hot water pool will vacate and you can scramble in and soak up the warmth.  In fact in some areas, the hot springs are so fiery the sand could burn skin, so its a good idea to leap into these pools carefully.

Its not a safe swimming beach, with some dangerous currents, and the area marked out for safe swimming by lifeguard’s flags is about 20 metres across.  But a stream running to the sea cuts a broad and shallow path through the sand, so there is plenty of shallow warm water for the little people to play in.  Apart from the throng crowding the small area of hot springs the beach was pretty sparsely populated, so once you have exhausted the delights of digging a hole and sitting in it, there is plenty of room to sun yourself – or sit under a brolly, as you would on this particular day, it was scorchingly hot.

There is a cafe right next to the beach where we got the essential post-beach ice blocks (by then the third of the day – the girls could hardly believe their luck), and we pootled off to visit Pauanui.  I’ve always found this little town quite odd.  It was developed privately by a property developer and a large amount of the current town of Pauanui was built within a few years in the late 70′s and early 80′s, and it shows.  Everything is very perpendicular and neat and tidy, like a little toy town.  I remember about 25 years ago that people said it would look better in 20 years, when all the trees and other greenery had grown up, but 25 years on, it still looks as odd as it did then.  It has a good takeaway though…we finished up with pizza and fries at the local playground.

On the way home to Auckland the next day we stopped off to pick up Bess from her own little Toy Town.  The kennel she stays at calls itself a Dog Hotel and Day Spa, offers doggy day care, and rather than housing the dogs in kennels puts them up in “apartments.”  The small dogs (of which she is one) are kept in Toy Town, which is essentially like the toddlers room at a day care – full of little toys and equipment to play on – with the glass fronted “apartments” arrayed around it.  If you pay extra, your dog can have an executive suite, which comes fully equipped with a bigger bed, duvet and pillow, and a flat screen TV tuned to cartoons or Animal Planet.   Even though Bess has a mere apartment she always seems pretty excited to go there – who would wonder – but even more excited to come home.  

So, today, back to work.  Its not all bad – one of the partners I work for tends to wander down to the partner’s lounge for a beer at about 5.30 each evening, and if I’m still there he brings back a glass of chilled white wine.  Not much to complain about in my life