Day 75 and 76 — Hot water beach at Te Rata Bay/Tarawera lake
Going to the hot water beach at Tarawera lake and camping out for one night was totally random. We had not heard from this place or read about it in the Lonely Planet or anywhere. When we checked in at a Holiday park at another nearby lake I saw one brochure “Tarawera trail”. As soon as I read trail the brochure was in my hands. When I asked the lady at the counter about the trail she was surprised “Is it open again?” It was closed for quite some time due to a landslide and some trail work had to be done. Than another lady came and confirmed that it was open again as she had just talked to someone the day before who walked the trail. But you had to be careful.
Well, that sounded just the perfect trail for us! If we can walk in the dark in the mountains, we can certainly manage the little landslide hickup. And the brochure also mentioned that there was a campsite at the hot water beach and you can be picked up by a water taxi. Just so perfect! We would hike in the 10km, sleep there and being picked up by boat the next day.
So, we packed our backpacks, booked the water taxi, started a little earlier as last time and we were on our way. It was a gorgeous day. The trail sneaked around the lake and up and down, up and down. We had heard that you can manage the distance in about 3–4 hours, but yes, with the little legs with us, it took us 6 hours. It’s always the best moment of the hike — the arrival! Finally, we were there. And we had the entire campsite for ourselves. It is off-season now. Everyone is back to work and school. And also the tourists seem to have disappeared. But sure, this place is not mentioned anywhere in the tourist guides. So, totally off the beaten track! We met one runner on the trail only. New Zealand nature pure.
When we arrived we had two beautiful black swans checking us out curiously. They came quite close. A little bit later the warden of the campsite came with his boat and told us that those two were called “Dori” and “Nemo” and he fed them bread. Sure enough they did not leave our side. Always hoping for more bread, though Jamie and Miya had quite some fun trying to chase them away with scary dancing.
Then we jumped into the lake. We couldn’t wait to finally trying it out. Just out of a few holes run about 85 degree celsius hot water into the lake. It did not blend so well, and you would have hot water on the surface, then cold lake water in the middle and then just about 1 cm in the sand it was burning hot again. We were constantly paddling with our arms in front of us so the water would mix. We were hopping around and giggling. Every “ouchh” was another laughter.
The next morning was so peaceful and beautiful. The sun just went up right behind the mountain on the other side of the lake. I had to go for a morning swim BB (before breakfast) in this beautiful lake! Not just in the warm water pool, no but really swim. I first went straight out, then a bit to the left and then all the way to the right. When I was out for about 30 minutes I saw Mick standing at the shore and calling me in for breakfast. When I returned they all three looked at me as if they were amazingly glad to see me. Thanks guys, love you too!
It turned out that they had lost sight of me swimming and were yelling my name for quite some time. I did not hear anything. They saw me last time when I went to the left and then did not see me anymore. I had turned in the meantime and were swimming in a totally different direction. I had the life time of swimming and they turned to crazy bananas jumping at the beach. When I asked Miya later if she was scared, she said: “Yes, mama, because you are my mom.”
But anyway, nothing to worry! I made it back, had breakfast and then decided to do some yoga poses. Naked of course. Remember, we were all alone on the beach, right!? Everyone knows by know, that I’m a little crazy, so that was just plain normal to my three companions. The thing was that when I just finished my first tree pose the water taxi came cruising around the corner with the first visitors for the day. Dang! I hoped into the tent and into my clothes and that was it for naked yoga…
