Tauranga

By the time I arrived at Appletree Backpackers in Tauranga it was already getting dark outside so there was nothing left for me to do. On Monday however I woke up at 6am to reach Hot Water Beach when it was still low tide. I parked my car at the free site off Domain Rd and joined a few French tourists in the holes they had dug in the sand. There is a hot stream running underneath the beach, and I mean HOT! We had to mix it with sea water to get a nice warm bath. About an hour later the sea began to reclaim the territory and we had to leave.

The next stop was Cathedral Cove, not far away. I raced there though to still be able to walk through it with the high tide now coming in rapidly. Fortunately it was still accessible so I could walk through that gateway into Narnia... well, it certainly felt like I was! I can totally understand why they filmed that here, it is an amazing location.

No, this is only a tree...

...but this is the famous tunnel!

Upon my return to Tauranga I walked to the city but it wasn't very big and almost everything was closed already. I decided that it was enough to stay another day, not longer... For the next day I had book a tour to White Island, New Zealand's only active marine volcano near Whakatane. Well, at least 1,5-hour-boat-ride-near.
Once there we were guided around the rocks and craters, had some photo opportunities and interesting insights on the mining history of this place. For you can still see the ruins of the abandoned mine there, very cool! The colours of the sulphur and other stones were fascinating but at the same we needed gas masks to breathe. All in all was the tour really fascinating and (although maybe not so cheap) definitely worth it!