Cathedral Cove and Hotwater Beach

 Our first Hahei hike on Friday was to the top of that promontory in the background of this picture. Our hike on Saturday allowed us to look back from the other end of Hahei Beach. We were on our way to Cathedral Cove.

Andy: On that promontory was a "pa," the site of a Maori settlement. Always good to be reminded of who was here first, and still is here for that matter. Both spiritually and physically, the Maori live on and are part of the landscape and cultural scape.

A trip, an excursion, a voyage is almost always a series of reminders for me. The hydrangeas in full bloom everywhere remind me of my mom and Stone Harbor. The beach sand castles take me back there too. Visions of my daughter being here not too long ago pop up and add to the richness of the experience. The walk to Cathedral Cove is a second cousin to the Napali Cliff walk long ago in Hawaii to the beach at the end, and the vistas are reminiscent of Crete. The immediacy of laughing with Ann and excitement of each step of the way add to the timelessness of it all.

Ann: Some of the filming of Chronicles of Narnia was filmed in New Zealand (as well as Lord of the Rings...) On the drive to Cathedral Cove we had a Narnian experience when we passed this mythical looking horse. At first glance, we thought it was a unicorn. Important note: The original description here has been changed after Andy disputed the stated location of said mythical horse, Ann went to the evidence of the camera to prove the purported timeline, only to be proven wrong by the evidence. It happens... back to the mythical horse.

We took our loaner spade from our hotel room, thinking we'd have the opportunity to dig our own little spa at Hot Water Beach. We were not the only ones with this illusion as many people showed up with spades in hand just to find that the hot water part of the beach was quite minimal in size but over populated. Andy described it as Coney Island on Fourth of July. There were probably a hundred people sitting in a dozen holes and another hundred standing around thinking that could be them sitting in those holes. The novelty quickly wore off for us and we walked down to the swimming beach to people watch and take a dip.

All the "hot spots" were taken when we got there.

Andy tries to pretend he did a little digging. Actually using as support for still misbehaving back.