Whitianga, New Zealand: Cathedral Cove

So I made friends with my French roomies back in Paihia and lo and behold, they were going to Whitianga on the same bus AND staying in the same hostel as me. We managed to get a ride from another traveller and headed to Cathedral Cove. It wasn't as amazing as I expected though, a really small beach with quite a few people kayaking. Maybe we should have gone during sunset? Or when the sky wasn't so overcast? Go Google image for this place and you'll see why I had high expectations.

Then we headed to Hot Water Beach. It looks exactly like a normal beach but when you dig into the sand, hot water comes out! As you can see, lots of family were out having fun in the hot pools. We dipped out feet into some holes and boy, the water was really hot! The hot water comes from underground, natural hot springs which filter up through the sand. Fascinating isn't it? Note that you need to go there during low tide.

Having friends meant that I could buy more ingredients and cook to share! :D We had a lot of fun cooking and sharing meals together. Photos taken off my Instagram account (@allyoffduty).

There wasn't much we wanted to do and we were rather tired so we spent the last day in Whitianga watching movies together. The hostel was quite empty so we pretty much had the whole place to ourselves and it was great, like a temporary home. :)