first I would like to start that God bless and watched over our entire trip. Which I am super grateful for. So Sunday morning April 12 Katie, Danielle, imran and Katie’s mom Marie and I started to head to the bus stop across the road from the school to catch the bus from Albany to Auckland city. We get to the city we grab some quick brunch food and get on the Nakedbus (No there is no nudity on this bus ha) to take a 5 hour ride to Hot water beach our final destination. We had a stop at a little town called Ngatea in NZ. After 3 hours of sitting we were glad to stretch our legs again, after grabbing some food we walked around and saw very little, a school that we guess was named after some War, a little memorial for the fallin solders, a play ground and just a few shops mostly selling farming equipment or tractors. 

So we continue our journey to hot water beach.  Which got its name from the  hot springs it has under it and so when the tide is low you can dig and hot water comes on the beach. Hints the name Hot Water Beach. Well before we actually reach there I’m mesmerized by how green everything is and captured by NZ mountainous  beauty. Just look!

Well we arrive at hot water beach around 5pm. We walk in a direction we suspected is the direction of our hostel for about 10 mins. we check-in and we get settled in our room and headed back out to get some classic NZ fish and chips from this stand just outside the place we check-in at. Marie rents a spade aka a small shovel and we head towards the beach near the rocks to be slightly disappointed and found no hot water and neither did many others except one lady we asked. So we didn’t get lucky on hot water beach that day.   

However the next day was the beautiful catherdal cove that at first we were worried we would have to bike there to see it because apparently there is no transportation from hot water to catherdal cove which about 10 to 15 mins away driving. Well we called a lady that gives that convenient service for $25 each. Which the lady at the reception who gave us her number said she was super expensive ha. And the lady was so nice wish I could remember her name. But we got to see the beautiful ocean that meets this beautiful cave like structure of the cove. The hike down there was a good hour. We took pictures and I just sat on the beach for a little bit and took in the beautiful scenery. This is the place that is in Narnia, and macklemore shot his music video. Once we were almost back at the top. The rain came. We beat the rain #1. We were done with our first stop in our week long trip and was waiting for what rotorua had for us next. Just a few pics of the beautiful catherdal cove  

Last little bit accommodations pros and cons:

Top 10 holiday park 

Pros: had a nice area to nice fit 3 bunk beds. Had a shelf / closet area space. Had 2 showers and two stalls. Didn’t realize it had two showers until we were about to leave. Had a kettle and a sink area outside of the bathroom. Even supplied a hair dryer. Outside there was a kitchen area and laundry room.

Cons: if used communal bathroom outside had to push a button for hot water but it was located outside of the shower. The shower I used it looked like they never cleaned the shower head. Yuck . Lots a moths.  Very Flat pillows for me. 

Overall this was my number 2 place to stay out of the 5 backpackers accommodations we stayed at.