Wednesday 5 January Hot springs

This water scalded toes

Walking is the thing to do on Gt Barrier Island and today's goal was to go for a dip in the hot springs. We'd moved round to Whangaparapara Bay yesterday afternoon ready to do the walk today. This was a less strenuous tramp than our climb to the top of Mt Hiramataki on Monday – a mere 5 hours round trip.

Pass the soap

The walk started along the road and then turned off onto a track linking to a disused tramline track. The metal tracks had been removed leaving a straight path through the forest that had led from the timber mill in the bay up into the hills and was used for moving those big kauri logs down to the water. What's left today in place of the big trees are fern trees and the fast growing stuff. It was a steady climb, but far easier than the mountain and took about 2 ½hours to reach the hot pool.

The pool has been made by damming the stream with rocks and letting the heated underground water collect. It has a slight sulphur smell which you don't notice after a few minutes. There was a group of people sitting around the picnic table which had been carried into the middle of the water. We slouched down into the first hot bath I've had in 18 months. We should have brought soap and sponges. At the side of the pool was a danger sign warning not to get your head under water. Apparently if you get the water up your nose there is a possibility of contracting fatal amoebic meningitis. Why is it you get an itchy nose when you can't touch it?

The hot bath was too good to get out. There had to be a draw to move on and there was, a report of another and hotter pool further upstream. We picked our way up the stony path with bare feet and found convenient steps down to a hidden pool under the trees. Certainly hotter, to the point of scalding if you happened to put your foot over one of the vents. It's amazing to think this is from the hot centre of the earth.

Again we took a different path back to town. This one followed the line where the ancient coastline met new swamp land and a different environment again, more wooden walkways over the fragile ecosystem and through mangroves. The downside of the return track was the last 2 miles was along a dusty road. Minivan to the rescue. We'd only gone 100 meters and a a minivan stopped to offer us a lift back to town. The driver was an Australian woman who used to be a cruiser. I think she must have recognised the cruiser shabby chic and took pity on us.