Hot Water Beach & Cathedral Cove

 

Hot water beach was a strange, fascinating, slightly overwhelming experience. On a small section of the beach, are hot springs welling up from under the sand. Apparently it is caused by rain and other freshwater seeping into the ground, being heated by magma (created in a volcanic eruption) and then rising to the surface. If you dig into the sand at one of these springs you can create a pool of hot water great for soaking. I imagined that the springs would be up the beach, away from the waves at high tide, but that wasn’t really the case. The best springs were closest to the waves, which meant that as soon as you started digging, the ocean undid all your work.

Found one! (Your dig your toes into the sand and if its hot there is a spring below!)

 Feeling it was useless to battle the waves alone, I buried my feet in the sand above a hot spot and just enjoyed it, until a couple from South Africa suggested working together. As we started to dig, a local family with a pool already made nearby took pity on us and helped us dig. Unfortunately the hot spring we had found wasn’t very good… so we ended up making our two pools into one big one. It was a bit overwhelming when I first got there, but all of us working together made it fun. The hot water was relaxing, but some areas of the sand were SO hot you could barely sit on them! I thought I was going to burn my bum in a couple places!

Digging our hot pool!

Our mediocre hot pool, just before we broke down that wall and made 1 big one.

After cleaning all the sand off and eating lunch I headed to the nearby Cathedral Cove. It is about a 40 min walk from the car park which was unfortunately very very full, so I had to park further into town, but it was still only a 1.5hr walk. The rocks and cave at the beach were cool, but there were so many people it didn’t really feel like the kind of place I wanted to plop down in the sand and relax. When I was getting ready to head back I bumped into one of the women working at the hostel I am at with her family. The locals here have been really friendly (so far! Haha) and seem to really value their family time.

 

In the evening I enjoyed a quick phone chat with Mario (<3) and then took a short walk on the beach by the hostel. There are SO many shells on that beach it is amazing! I don’t know why but in certain areas of the beach the shells collect in HUGE piles. And each pile seems to have a slightly different mix of shells, in a rainbow of colors, shapes, and sizes.  It's was quite fascinating.

All the white-ish bits are piles of shells!

So many shapes and colors!

Tomorrow I will explore a bit north of Whitianga... Hope the weather stays nice!