better the second time around.

As you faithful readers know, we've already been to the Coromandel but it was awful weather. Luckily, Sam wanted to see what this Coromandel thing had to offer and boy are we glad she did! We actually saw the mountains this time! We actually saw blue water instead of grey mucky water! We saw a totally different side of the Coromandel and it was so fun to experience it with Sam!

First stop after Mount Manganui - Cathedral Cove. We had some time to kill until low tide, so we made the hike down to Cathedral Cove. Definitely better the second time around. We took fun photos and played around in the hot "summer" sun for a bit before heading back out.

Then onto Hot Water Beach. HWB is a strip of beach land that has hot thermal magma flowing beneath the sand. People go out during low tide and dig their own hotpool and hang out in the sun. We hired (kiwi for rented) a shovel and dug our hole (and by "we" I mean Josh...) and hot water started bubbling up from under the sand... pretty incredible. We spent our afternoon in our own private hotpool right on the ocean. VIP.

We ended our time with a drive on the backroads down to Thames for Indian food and then back to the Auckland area for the night. A lot of driving, but who cares when you have DJ Sam mixing up the tunes and beautiful scenery the whole way?? A great day!