Another early start and with laundry on the agenda we used the gym to fill some waiting time. Once we were ready to go we set off back towards Hot Water Beach and went further to Hahei Bay. We parked “Po” in the bay car-park and decided to walk to Cathedral Cove from there. In all fairness it’s not the most exciting of walks and would be better appreciated from further up the road as we mostly walked through domains and up steps around the back of houses. Once we got to Cathedral Cove car-park the walk from there to the cove is more enjoyable and it was HOT! Helen was going to get a morning on the beach! Woop! The walk took around 45 minutes through forest and back pathways before taking steps down to Cathedral Cove. It’s a bit of an anticlimax; there are far too many tourists that head there so perhaps a very early or later on in the day trip would be more worthwhile. The natural bridge that has formed is cordoned off so you’re not supposed to go through it, and there are prettier bays to visit! However we went under the bridge and through to the next bay which was quieter and so we set up and sunbathed for an hour or so.

When we were ready we made our way back to the car via loads more tourists! It is a nice beach but it’s not that big and so the fact that nearly everyone passing through the area does visit it spoils the experience. Lesson learned!

Back to Hahei where we decided to move onto Te Aroha. The journey took around 3 hours and it was a hot afternoon to be in the van. Te Aroha, meaning ‘the love’ was a little sleepy for a saturday, we had expected more from its write up in the Lonely Planet. We stayed at another holiday park this time costing $15 each and with free wifi and free showers, free wifi at last!! We then went back to Te Aroha and explored the hot spring options. There are 2 to choose from, one is more of a private indulgence with one hot bath for 30 minutes costing $18 each and the other is a public bath costing $8 per person. We opted for the cheaper of the two, it wasn’t as hot as we’d experienced in Jasper but it was okay for what we needed.

When we were done with the self-indulgence we walked around the domain which houses old baths, buildings and bowling greens. The light was beautiful at this point. On the main street we found a South-Indian eatery called Clove offering fairly priced curries so we had our first meal out since we’d got to New Zealand.

Due to technical error and digital misunderstanding we don’t have the photos for this post…DOH! We hope that our entry was captivating enough for you to imagine our experience!