Wednesday, March 27 - Cathedral Cove, Hot Water Beach

The Coromandel Peninsula is east of Auckland and has a number of
well known attractions.  Since it's only a couple hours away from NZ's
biggest city, there are plenty of Kiwi vacationers enjoying the beginning
of Autumn.

The coastline has caves, solitary rocks, and islands

Cathedral Cove joins two small surf beaches, and indeed has a
cathedral-like feel to it

A smaller cave, more like a chapel I suppose

A view of the Sentinel

A bit down the coast, hot water bubbles up right at the edge of the surf.
During low tide you can dig down a foot or so and make your own hot tub.
That area just left of Diana's legs was quite hot!  Within fifteen minutes of
taking this photo the incoming tide began flooding the whole area.  Lots
of fun.

The area that covered by the hot springs isn't very large, but as Diana said
it still wasn't as crowded as Bondi Beach just outside of Sydney, which
must have nearly 200 acres of sand mobbed with people.