Tauranga,
North Island,
New Zealand
Wednesday, April 14, 2004
23.38 - Yet another early morning unfortunately but yet again, well worth it. We had to be at the Hot Water beach between 08.00 and 10.00 in order to catch the hot water rising. It can only be felt one hour before and one hour after the low tide. At first when we got there we were just digging holes anywhere and expecting to find hot water but it was only in certain places which we found out of luck close to the sea. When we did actually find it, it was really hot (about 64 degrees) and you had to let sea water in to cool it down. For you to be able to sit in it, you had to build a pool surrounded by sand to stop the water escaping and stop all the sea getting in. After a quick dip in the 'spa' we cooled down in the rough sea and it was just like a plunge pool! It started to rain and it started to get cold so it was time to get off. We all dried off then we set off for our cultural stop at Uncle Buoys stopping off for a beautiful walk around Mt. Monganui. After here we went to a scruffy little hut which turned out to be the backpacker accommodation at Uncle Buoys! It was not exactly good quality especially with the wall of my room missing! As it turned out, it was well worth the $35 we paid for it. We had a good meal followed by some interesting cultural history and information. After this, the lads and lasses were sent away separately to learn the traditional Maori dances. We were taught the Hakka that the New Zealand All Black's perform, only we had to do it topless in front of the girls. They then had to do their poi dance in front of us, sadly they didn't take their tops off though! After we had finished, the local Maori children did a dance for us which was quite scary with all the faces they pulled and the shouting and stamping.
