Marc & Nora ROUND THE WORLD 2005/2006 - Join us!

This is a big region to explore and is full of activities and beautiful nature but we only had a couple days so we decided on just two places to visit and they were Coromandel and Hot Water Beach.

As with so many regions here in NZ the drive is enjoyable in itself The Pacific Coast Highway). Mountains, hillside pastures, beaches, valleys its got it all. We stopped in the little village of Coromandel for breaky before heading over to the `Driving Creek Railway and Potteries`. In 1975 a potter called Barry Bricknell purchsed a 22Ha piece of land and with the intention of setting up a cooperative pottery and kiln. In the process of doing so he started building a narrow gauge railway to transport wood and clay down from the mountain side. Over the years he added section after section until he arrived at what is now a tourist railway which carries about 600 passengers a day in the Summer. All of his income from the railways gets re-invested into the land which he is replanting with native Kauri trees which were destroyed in this area by early settlers in search of gold.

So after we had zig-zagged our way up the mountain towrds the highest look out point we heard a shout from the driver of the train ahead of us. The train had broken down so of course the journey had to be cut short and we couldn`t make it to the top.....Nora and I just sat quietly with guilty looks on our faces as we both knew for certain that the only reason the train broke down on this day is because we were there!!! The curse of Marc & Nora strikes again!

So after Nora had indulged my geeky interest in all things engineering it was time to hit the beach....but this one isn`t your regular beach by any means. There is a small section of Hot Water Beach which sits dirtectly above some very active and very hot thermal springs. Each day for a period of 2 hours either side of low tide you get the oppurtunity to head to this spot, spade in hand, and dig yourself a hole in which you can relax in bubbling hot waters just meters from the cold waters of the pacific. By the time we arrived the place was pretty busy so we found a spot and I started to dig in the hope of creating our own little luxury beach spa......my male pride dimished as I failed again and again to provide Nora with her beach side jacuzzi. I dug and dug and dug but all that filled my holes was cold sea water. Anyway we just stared at some bloke who was happilly enjoying his hot water spa until he was made to feel so uncomfortable that he just got up and left. Good tactic. So in we hopped and man was it nice....not too hot but just right....at first! Then in came in waves.....boiling hot water (and I mean kettle hot) rushing over your body.....the young couple in the hole next to us just looked on knowingly and amused as we screamed in pain. After some more scalding we jumped into the cold sea to cool down....ahhh relief!! We then hung around so we could look on smugly as other unsuspecting tourists aquired 3rd degree burns in the boiling waters of hot water beach