Sorry for the two postings in a row, I didn’t have internet for a while. After we left Wellington, we drove and drove and drove until we hit Napier. Napier is a nice and quiet little Art-Deco town on the West Coast of the northern Island. We did a short walking tour of the place to check out the various Art-Deco on the buildings. The town was almost torn down in 1931 by an earthquake and it went through a make over after that. There are lots of beautiful Spanish inspired buildings amongst other Greek and Maori style buildings. Not far from town, there’s this little pizza place in Havelock North about 15 minutes away. This pizza place is amazing, a real jewel! The decor was Old Italian, the dining room was all pink and the food was absolutely to die for! We had a nice pizza and an olive & cheese platter and it was so delicious. My favourite was the pizza.
Once we wrapped up with our visit of Napier in one short day, we packed up the all mighty Sushi (our van) and proceeded further up the coast to Hot Water Beach. This was a really unique experience. Here’s why they call it hot water beach: at low tide at night and in the morning, we have a 4 hour-window (2 hours prior and 2 hours following) to find a specific spot on the beach where the sand is actually hot. You may wonder how hot it gets well let’s just say that you cannot stand still for more than 5 seconds before you feel a burning sensation on your sole. I’m not quite sure how this works, I think it has something to do with a crack in the earth that allows the hot air to make its way to the surface. In this process, the hot air heats up the water and sand thus making this the Hot Water Beach. Please don’t quote me on this I still need to research further. So the tide was at its lowest @ 9:12 pm, we got there at 7:00 pm with a spade in hand. We spotted the bubbly sand surface and started digging. It was hard at first because we were early so the tide was not dropping yet. Our hole kept being washed in and filled when the waves crashed in. But patience and persistence is the name of the game. So we kept digging and the hole got deeper and bigger, we started having our personal nice hot bath on the beach. But the water was wayyy too hot! Hotter than the hot springs water in Banff! Some spots were hotter than others, so changing spots was an important routine. We met a really friendly family from Montreal and we quickly joined force to make our hole a bigger spa for all 7 of us. They were such friendly people we had a lot of fun with them. They have two kids and these kids are pretty lucky; they are travelling for 8 months and while they tour around, they will go to school in NZ for three months, then to another school in Australia later in the year. What 3rd grader and 7th grader can say that about their school year? And they live in a camper van like us, well the 2 kids and their mom are. The grandparents are joining their venture for only a few months. Pretty neat eh! This definitely gives me ideas for my future family J
It was such a wonderful night meeting and hanging out with new people, on the beach, in hot water, under the beautiful moon. This was a really unforgettable experience.
