Getting into hot water

 Day 6 Whitianga to Rotorua

Our first stop for the day was Hot Water Beach, a place where if you dig into the sand in the right spot (hiring a shovel if needed) you can find hot water. We were told we had arrived too early as the tidal conditions meant it wouldn't be possible until around 1pm, in about two hours. However these facts didn't seem to concern some tourists who parted with $10 for their shovel and headed to the beach.

We walked up to a point where a number of people were standing still in the shallows. On asking what they were doing, we were told that you just needed to wriggle your feet in the sand, you'd sink in a bit and find some warmth. Sure enough within a minute our feet had gone from warm to so hot we needed to yank them out before they were scalded!

From there we continued further south along the Peninsula, through the large town of Tauranga and a kiwi fruit growing area before arriving in Rotorua. We visited the Redwood sky walk (with Californian redwoods, not native NZ trees) learning about the timber history and culture in this part of the world.