Hot Water Beach and Cathedral Cove

We debated the best way to see the northern part of New Zealand in a short amount of time. (6 days left to be exact) Research by recommendation led us to doing a road trip with a Juicy Campervan.

Picked up our Juicy Van and headed to Hot Water Beach, (an easy 2hr drive from Auckland). The drive was just wow, I kept trying to think of what I could relate this scenery to. After major consideration I would say its like Colorado and Hawaii had a kid. The rolling hills, the magnificent mountains that all seem to brush right up against the ocean, it’s visually mesmerizing.

I managed to dig 6 uneventful holes in attempt to find the natural hot springs that run below the sand. We were told the tide was to high and we would have better luck if we came back for low tide (and also brought a shovel, rather than digging bare hands), of course that was in 6 hours and time along with sunshine was too valuable for us to sit around and wait.

We continued down the road to Cathedral Cove, (Which had been voted as the most scenic beach in New Zealand.) It was an easy 45min walk to get to the Cathedral. It was also easy to see why this beach had such remarkable reviews. It was stunning.

With the sun starting to set and us not having a clue where we were going to camp for the night we brushed the sand off our ass’s and walked back to our green machine. We drove down the coast past Mt. Maungani and ended up finding ourselves in a parking lot with the smell of the sea salt hitting our cold noses. There were “No Camping” signs sprinkled around the moon lit pavement. There was another van in the parking lot, outside of it a couple, boiling water for some tea. They told us they have been living out of their van and have been camping at this beach for over 2 months, we decided to stay.