Hahei-5-(uh)-Oh
Trip Start
Nov 12, 2007
1
16
40
Trip End
Aug 01, 2008
Hahei,
New Zealand
Friday, January 25, 2008
The weather took a turn for the worse as we were leaving the Bay of Islands on Sunday with the remants of a Pacific cyclone bringing strong wind and rain to NZ. We were heading back down to the Coromandel Pensisula on the East side of the North Island. To break the journey, we stopped overnight in a small resort called Orewa that had a long sandy beach heavily congested with wind and kite surfers. Too speedy for us, we would not have been tempted to join them even if the skies had been blue rather than leaden grey.
Leaving Orewa in the pouring rain on Monday, we travelled to Hahei where we stayed in a lovely unit on an organic farm in the middle of nowhere
View from Eyefull Tower
. There were great views down the garden, across farmland to a cove in the distance though we could see beyond the front deck when we first arrived.We spent tuesday morning driving around exploring the area visiting some of the local beaches and viewpoints. The weather improved during the day and the sun was back by lunchtime. We took a 5 minute passenger ferry ride across an inlet to the nearest reasonable sized town, Whitanga for lunch. We then walked from Hahei beach, which was only a 5 minute drive from where we were staying, along a cliff footpath down to a local landmark Cathedral Cove, named because of a large arch eroded out of the rocky coast (again!).
On Wednesday morning Emma agreed to go sea kayaking but only if she did not have to do an eskimo roll before being allowed to go out. "No worries" I said ( I'm learning the language but not well enough) and phoned to book our place. The guide said the conditions were "beautiful", which I took to mean "like a mill pond" but it actually meant "bleeding big waves"
We arrived at Hahei beach along with 5 other couples and all looked nervously at the waves crashing on to the shore.After a brief introduction and safety session we were allocated kayaks. The paddling technique seemed quite straightforward when practising on the beach. Kayaks are known as friendship destroyers or divorce makers because the front person controls the pace and the back person steers. They advised that the dominant person should steer. All the men headed to the back of the kayaks and all the women looked on knowingly as they let them.
The guides then explained that unfortunately, we had to paddle through the breaking waves to get to the calm sea behind. The advice was keep the kayak straight and paddle like mad. The first couple went in and after a wobble or two and made it through to general applause, then the 2nd and 3rd and 4th. Then it was our turn.
We went through the first small wave but the kayak started to go left. We were still coming to terms with the paddling and steering and the next thing we knew we were at 90 degrees with a large wave looming in front of us about to break. I don't remember the next few moments as they are a frothy blur. The kayak ended back on the beach without us. I came up from the water, grabbed my oar and hat that was floating by but could not find my dignity or our water bottle. Then I remembered Emma who was surfacing through the foam but did not look like Ursula Andress. By the time we were back on the sand, the guides were already pumping the water out of our kayak.
Everyone else was paddling out at sea waiting for us as we had a second go. Again we ended up at 90 degrees to the beach with a large wave looming. I closed my eyes but by some sort of miracle, this time, the wave went under us and did not break and we were perched on top of it - reminiscent of a scene from a Tom and Jerry cartoon. We managed to paddle out to join the rest of the group.
I began to relax as the sea was calmer and the sun was drying us out. After about 20 minutes, one of the guides was gesturing towards a small island further out to sea with waves breaking against the base. With the sea water still in my ears, I could not hear what the guide was telling us. Then everyone else began to start paddling to the right of the island to obviously go round it. I could not hear what Emma was saying either as she had her back to me, but I caught a few words drifting back to me - "Not" "*******" "island" "round" Now I don't as a matter of policy normally argue with Emma, but it did occur to me at this point that we didn't have a lot of choice. So as I was in charge of the rudder, we set off behind the others finally establishing some sort of co-ordinated rhythm.
The guides were showing off their skills kayaking through the white water waves breaking at the base of the island and there was an option to kayak through yet another arch on the other side. We declined. Soon we were paddling back towards the shore towards Cathedral Cove (where we had walked the day before). The guides informed us that we were going to have a coffee break on the beach once we had safely navigated ourselves back through the waves to the sands. Emma seemed to have learnt the technical term for the waves though I could not quite make out quite what she was calling them.
Actually going back in with the waves was much easier and we managed to get on to the beach without incident. We did however have to get back out. Cathedral Cove is a popular spot so there would be a lot of spectators.I was a little worried that as Emma knew her way back via the walking trail she was going to make a run for it, but soon we were back in the kayak. The guide pushed us into the water and Emma, not normally a religious person, must have been muttering a prayer - well I think that was what it was because I certainly heard the words Jesus Christ. We made it though I had to point out to Emma that we were 50 yards out before she stopped her frantic paddling. We headed back towards Hahei beach. I was having a bit of trouble with the rudder sticking. I did not tell Emma this as I had a husband's intuition that she might not take this news well so I had to endure her comments on my steering all the way back. Even in the front of a kayak she is a back seat passenger.
After lunch, we drove to Hot Water Beach. Due to some sort of volcanic activity below the beach hot water (60 degrees) seeps up through the sand. At low tide you can dig a hole and take a hot spa. We couldn't summon up the energy or the enthusiam ourselves but it was an interesting sight and the water is hot.
We then took a leisurely walk along Hahei beach before going home. We sat down near the kayaking area and there stood upright in the sand, like a momument was our missing water bottle. I decided to cool off with a quick dip in the sea misjudged a wave and ended up spitting sea water again.
We decided to have a quiet day on thursday. We went for a drive round the very scenic area finishing at a very strange tourist attraction. An eccentric old potter bought a piece of hillside and built a narrow guage railway to the top. Tourists are now taken up to the views at the top at the "eyefull tower" There was a very strange commentary which sounded serious until you actually listened to what the driver was saying. The train travels very slowly and the driver gets off and walks from one end to the other as it zigzags up the hill. Great views though and we didn't get wet.
