I let the kids sleep in a bit this morning as they are still adjusting to the time difference and it being lighter so much later. Although, the kids had not been woken at 1.15am by the local emergency siren like Colin and I had. Eventually, though, they were roused and ready for our big day.

We walked into town, straight down the main road to Hahei Beach which is lovely and not at all crowded. A walk through some forest lead north and uphill to the start of the Cathedral Cove walking trail.

We took the time to visit two little bays on the way. Gemstone Bay has a very rocky beach with large rocks and no sand in sight. There is a snorkel trail, which would have been nice to do, but we didn’t have masks, snorkels or fins. I think wetsuits would have been almost essential too as the water was icy.

The second bay was Stingray Bay with fine white sand, and a cave to explore.

I predicted that we would get to the Cathedral Cove and find it so crowded that we wished we had stopped at Stingray Bay which was almost deserted. I was right.

Cathedral Cove was super popular with lots of people on the beaches either side of the impressive archway. We stopped here for lunch and Liam and I had a swim, before we headed back on our return walk.

I am glad we made the effort, but more for the walk and the bays along the way than for the Cathedral itself. Liam and Emily were such legends too and only grumbled a little about the 12km, up-hill and down-dale walk. They were delighted to have an ice-cream from the general store on the way back to our accommodation.

We picked up some shovels from our accommodation and hopped in the car for the 10 minute drive to Hot Water Beach. This is a beach where hot mineral water bubbles up from where it is heated underground by volcanic lava flow. From 2 hours before to 2 hours after low tide, there is space to dig a hole in the sand and have a hot spa. It was also disappointingly crowded and the extreme heat of the water (64 degrees) as well as all the other people made it difficult to find a spot. The trick, we discovered, is to have a pool close enough to the ocean to let cold seawater in from below, with a trickle of the heated water from the springs to warm you up but not too much. We saw quite a few people who looked like they had superficially burnt feet and bottoms/upper thighs from the water.

Liam again went for a swim here, enjoying the icy water and waves, swimming back along the length of the beach while the rest of us walked the same route back to the car park. Back to Hahei and our accommodation for warm showers and dinner, a movie and early to bed. We have another big day planned tomorrow!