Today I finally accomplished something I've been excited about since I started planning this trip. I used my bathing suit for what I had originally brought it for.
When I first heard about Hot Water Beach a friend told me "there's a beach on the north island where if you dig a hole, it fills with water from hot springs." I'm paraphrasing but that was the basic idea. It sounded amazing.
When I started researching what there was to do in New Zealand and where things were I found that the so called Hot Water Beach was somewhat out of the way. I would not let this stop me though.
This afternoon I hopped on a rather small shuttle bus in Auckland, and was brought directly to the beach.
The place I'm staying at isn't exactly a hostel, it's kind of a park. People camp their trailers and there are a bunch of small cottages, with one center building that has a kitchen and showers. My cottage is a small double bunk bed room, but I only have one roommate, so it's not as crowded as if I had three.
At reception I was told the tides, because the hot springs only work at low tide. Tonight at 8:40 the tide would be low, and it would be digging time.
The only trouble with going at night was that it's tough to see at night, so my roommate and I had to follow a dark path through the woods, hoping it would come out at the beach.
Fortunately we found the beach, and followed the flashlights to where other people were. From walking around it became apparent that the water was either extremely cold from the ocean, or boiling hot from the springs. The water was far hotter than I expected. Just standing in the hot water became unbearable after a few moments.
The key to making a good spring was quickly discovered when we joined forces with a smaller group outside the main crowd. The idea was a dig up a spring and then combine it with the cold water to make a comfortable pool of water.
Even still it wasn't perfect, one side of the pool was constantly hotter, and while I sat there I had to constantly keep in motion to avoid burning myself. I then trades spots with someone on the other side to find it was practically cool.
The beach was really great though. I'm glad I found a nice group of people to sit and chat with because it would not have been as enjoyable if I had dug my own little hole and sat alone.
I was also glad that I wasn't a part of the main large crowd that seemed to never keep quiet. I'm sure they had fun, but it wouldn't have worked for me.
Although it is July it is still winter here in New Zealand, and I think someone summed it up best when they thought the locals were laughing at us going to the beach in the middle of winter. But I think it was even better this way. The heat was an escape from the cold, rather than just hot water on a hot day.
Unfortunately I couldn't get any good photos of my time at the beach since it was quite dark. But I'll get some photos in the morning so look for those in tomorrow's post.
Also the service here is pretty terrible so who knows if I can even get this posted. Hopefully you're reading this at the right time.
Before I go I will mention one more cool thing that happened. While walking through the dark forest to the beach we say a bunch of glow worms. They were a bunch of green dots of light in the forest, like the eyes of a band of small creatures watching us go by. It was very cool to see them because I had heard so much about them but never seen them in reality. Makes me look forward to Waitimo where there are supposed to be caves full of them.
Tomorrow I spend a day here at Hot Water Beach so I will see what kind of adventures the area has to offer. I have some good prospects but I'll save that for tomorrow. Until then, thanks for reading and here's to tomorrow.
P.S. The thumbnail image is a building from Auckland, the only photos I took today are vague darkness in an attempt to capture the hot spring we had made. If only iPhones could see in the dark.
