In hot water

On Thursday, we celebrated Andrew's birthday.  It started off with some excitement, as we woke up to discover the water was off due to a pipe burst.  Then at the library, Erin came running over to say the place was flooding, water flowing through the roof.  Back home to call the building manager.  The tenant upstairs had left their taps open, so when the water came back on, it flowed and flowed and flowed.  There was a lot of water.  He got it turned off, so we made French toast while it dripped it's way through and then did some clean up.  Happy Birthday Andrew!

Anyways the rest of the day was a lot better.  He got a few of his new favourite chocolate bars and a rugby ball.  In the evening, we had pizza and cake and headed over to Minus 5, the ice bar, for a drink.  It was a little underwhelming, but was cold enough to remind us a little of home.  Minus another 20 degrees of course!

Ice glasses!

On Friday we headed out to the Hot Water Beach, about 2.5 hours from Auckland.  This beach is over some lava, so at low tide if you dig a pool in the sand, it's full of hot water.  And we're talking hot, some spots you couldn't even sit in because they were so warm.  It was really bizarre, but one of my favourite things we have done here.  It was ridiculous how many people were squished in to about 15 metres of the beach.

Dig your own hot tub

We took a drive around the rest of the Coromandel peninsula on the way back; it was rainy so the view wasn't the greatest.  A beautiful place though.

We ended the night by watching Back to the Future, which Andrew had never seen.  An oldie but a goodie, just like him.