Christmas 2010: Narnia for the Weekend

After a long and windy drive in the dark we arrived in Hahei. I woke up the next morning to an amazing view. A perfectly sunny day… (I have photos to prove it Dad). After slaving away at the frying pan making a breakfast of pancakes with Cdn. maple syrup Jamie and I headed to the beach just at the end of the road. It was amazing, waves rolling in one after another gave it a tropical feel, and the sand was just as nice. The morning consisted of a quick tan, enjoying the scenery and arranging the Sea Kayaking for later in the day.

The kayak group was a mix of Brits, Danes and Germans… and of course us Canucks. Other than the swells rolling into the beach the surface was calm so it made for perfect kayaking. Realizing we were pretty much professional kayakers the instructor had us lead the way. We first headed to Cathedral Cove (where they filmed part of the second Narnia movie). There we stopped, and had a chance to take some photos as the guide took our order for the Cathedral Cove Kayak’s exclusive beachfront café (i.e. A camp stove espresso machine brought over in our kayaks and set on a picnic blanket). After we had been all hopped up on caffeine we headed back into the bay towards the outer islands, the first of which had a tunnel which we were able to kayak through, which was made a little interesting by the swell. Around the back of the island the swell got huge, so big that it no longer seemed like waves, you simply slowly went up and slowly went down (The nearest coastline to the east would be Peru or something). The guide pointed out a dead penguin, and explained that it was most likely killed by a recent storm whose waves were too much for them to handle. Not to worry though as not soon after we saw a group of three live Blue Penguins. Paddling to the next island we also paddled through a school of fish, which jumped to get out of our way. Once there we saw a sea lion sunning itself on a rock, and with the water being perfectly clear, sea urchins on the sea floor. We are definitely coming back in the summer for diving and snorkeling.

Notice Pete the Perished Penguin on his paddle^

It was coming to low tide so we headed to Hot Water Beach. This beach has two springs rising into it that are accessible around low tide; the Maori spring is 64°C while the Orua spring is 60°C (There were bubbles but the sing assured us that it was simply carbon dioxide not the water boiling). We weren’t expecting the springs to live up to their hype however, so we were surprised to find such a large group of people already there when we arrived. The first pool we stepped in (which people had dug out of the sand with shovels was fairly luke warm. Not impressed so far. Walking through the middle pool, which strangely no one was in, we were amazed. It was SO hot, you couldn’t even step in it without cooking your feet. We soon found a pool that was closer to the spring, but not so hot that we felt like lobster in a pot, and enjoyed the warm water talking to other tourists (Am I still a tourist now that I have been here nearly 2 months?). On a side note if anyone is reading the Melbourne Australia newspaper anytime soon keep an eye open for Jamie and I, as a travel writer from the paper was there and took a photo of us ‘hip young people’ for her article.