Sojama Road: New Zealand is a big park

We left our camp site for a town with access to food and stopped in Coromandel Town which is more of a village than a town. We found a place with great coffee and very nice tables. There are a lot of beautiful wooden tables here. This was a also a place that was once covered with trees and now there aren't that many considering how many there were. They've made a lot of nice tables. The government has put 1/3 of the land here into reserved status so it will not be developed.

The guide book mentioned a beach off the road we were taking as one of the best in the country. We visited and there was no one there, and it was amazing. There were a few houses around and it looked like there was some development going on a bit to the north but otherwise, it was very quiet. We swam and had a picnic.

After a few hours we moved on to Whitianga where we were told there was a very cool cafe / swimming pool that had indoor caves. Great for kids, the guy told us. We arrived to Lost Springs to see a sign that said NO children under the age of 14 allowed.

We contemplated leaving the kids in the van. Just kidding. Not really. Well sort of.. well you decide.

We moved on but before we reached our destination, we saw a sign for a produce stand.

This place had amazing produce-- especially boysenberries which Sonia insisted on calling poisonberries. I told her there is no way someone would name a food poisonberries. She agreed with my logic finally.

Then on to our final destination for a couple of days: Hot Springs Beach. The unique draw of the beach is that at low tide, you can pick a spot on the beach, dig down a few inches and hot water will come out of the sand. You dig your own spa.

cool path from the campground to Hot Springs beach

When we arrived in the afternoon, we’d learned we missed low tide so we hung out on the beach for a bit. Unfortunately, the beach is very rough with a lot of rip tides so I didn’t want to swim with the kids. We returned to the campground and played out there.

This morning we woke up and walked over to the beach at low tide. It’s the second day of summer and this is a popular spot. Our campground is far from full but this is the most people I’ve seen in any campground. I heard several Americans, lots of Brits, and as always, many, many Germans.

We had a great time hanging out in our little spa. There are two hot springs that run under the beach due to a volcanic "intrusion" 5-9 million years ago. The heat is a result of magma that has moved closer to the surface. The hot water is over 160 degrees so it was scalding if you touched it. Our pool had a little hot water and lots of cool water so it was just a warm pool -- not a burning pit.

We jumped into the water too. Ryan took the kids out as he is less nervous in rough water.

The sun was really shining today and while I think it’s only 70 or so it feels a lot hotter when the sun is out. After a few hours in the sun, we were done and headed back to the campground.

We went to another nearby small town called Hahei to check out the beach where we’ll be going kayaking tomorrow and to have lunch. We are going to a place called Cathedral Cove which is on the cover of our guidebook. By the time we finished lunch and got to the beach it was 4. Our kids wilt in the heat so we didn’t stay long.

They’ve revived though and now they are out go-carting again.

We returned to the beach to see what had happened to all the mini-spas.