Camping with friends near idyllic beaches with turquoise water where film crews come to film epic movies.
It doesn’t get much better than this!
Our second weekend in New Zealand was spent camping at Hahei Beach in the Coromandel. Ashley and Justin found a Holiday Park where we were able to pitch our handy little two-person tent for the first time. (Thanks James for letting us borrow it!)
Once we were all set up, we ventured down to the beach to stick our feet in the water.
Definitely one of the most gorgeous beaches I’ve ever laid eyes on.
We braved the cold water the next morning and went for a swim. Then we hopped in the car and drove a few kilometres to the Hot Water Beach.
The boys wielded the shovels and starting digging, in search of the hot water that bubbles up from the sand at low tide. Unfortunately, our two options were cold water or practically boiling hot. There was no happy medium!
Some nice people who were ready to leave gave us their spot. They managed to dig their hole right next to the hot water so they could mix it with the cold sea water.
We ate our second breakfast in our sand spa.
After lunch back at our campsite, we ventured out on a hike to Cathedral Cove–where the first Narnian scene of Prince Caspian was filmed!
The view of Hahei Beach on the way up was stunning!
We came up against a barricaded trail on the way, but having talked with the holiday park employees, we knew it was fine to proceed on at our own risk.
Such little rebels!
We weren’t about to let a little fence stop us from seeing what we came to see.
The steps on the final leg of the trail had been washed away in a storm, but we made it down with just a little slipping and sliding.
It was definitely worth the walk/climb!
Hungry, tired, and sunburnt from the beach, we made our way back to the campsite for dinner and a movie on our laptop.
We packed up the next morning and headed back to Auckland where we grabbed lunch at a great little cafe called Shaky Isles then had our first experience staying the night in a hostel!
Check out more of our experience on Facebook or Flickr!
