We had cereal and milk from the little supermarket at our holiday park, and boarded the bus to drive to Cathedral Cove. Luke insisted his research had discovered an easy 30 minute walk, but the reality was slightly different! I voted down the free parking at the opposite end of the town and made the boys pay $15 for parking at the walk entrance – we listed it as our “unnecessary expense of the day” (*) but everyone later agreed it was well worth paying!

(Minus one photographer, Aunty Beck)

The walk to Cathedral Cove was written on signs as 45 minutes each way (even with my arthritic knees I got there in 30mins), but there were several stairs and undulating hills along the way! It was well worth the hike though, and everyone left with some beautiful photos.

We stopped for lunch at a popular little cafe in Hahei before returning to Hot Water Beach. The tourist attraction there is to dig your own thermal pool, which can only be done either side of low tide, which today was at 2.53pm. As we had checked out of the Top 10 holiday park there this morning, they agreed to let us return to hire spades and we took them down to Hot Water Beach.

The kids had a ball there digging their own hot spring, but found they couldn’t stand in the water for too long because it was too hot! The underground hot springs filter up through the sand between high and low tides. It was amazing to see the steam coming off the sand so close to the freezing cold ocean water!

We then took the long and windy road (Zac LOVES windy roads 😩) across to Coromandel township where we stopped for fruit for afternoon tea (no one complained!) and then drove the scenic coastal road down to Thames, our stop for the night. We discovered a gorgeous little waterfall off the track along the way, and it was only a 3minute walk each way to get there!

And just to prove that Aunty Beck and I were there as well…….(but not as keen to climb yet another rock face)…..

Our accommodation here is a couple of lovely chalets built into the side of a hill, with beautiful views from our bedroom windows. We tried to eat at the local bistro which came highly recommended for dinner, but they couldn’t fit us in! The local Thai restaurant a few doors down was able to house us though. Mental note: when there is 13 of us, we need to consider booking ahead if we want to eat out!

* Grandpop shared his diary with us from our trip 20 years ago before we left, and on every page he had a “bargain of the day”. Tim’s favourite was a $15 T-shirt Grandpop picked up for $14 🙄😂, so Ross and Luke’s response to that was to list an anti-bargain of the day 😆