After a brief overnight stop, today we are heading for Papamoa, which is a relatively short drive for us, only an hour and a half. As the weather is so good, on the way will visit 2 beaches.

The first beach is Hahei Beach, on the Coromandel coast and is lovely.

After a swim, it was tea and cake and a taste of Paua, a shell fish delicacy which is the fish from inside the very blue shiny shells they sell all over New Zealand. It was a bit like a cross between a fish and a mussel. Very good, would have again

Then we were off to Hot Water beach. As you may be able to guess from the name, hot water springs come from under the sand and the idea is, you dig a hole so that it fills with hot water and sit in it.

It’s very popular so finding a parking space for our 3 cars was the first challenge, but we did. Then Michael went off to rent a spade, you have to dig with something, and got the last one available.

As I said, Hot Water beach is very popular. Can you guess where the hot springs are in the photo below?

After a lovely day on beaches, we headed for Papamoa, seeing some wonderful views on the way..

As we near Papamoa, we get our first look at Mount Maunganui. We will be going up there tomorrow. Zoe tells me it’s only a 10 minute walk… Works for me!