Cook out on the beach

What to do today ? We had a big day yesterday with all that driving and bike riding. It’s chucking it down with rain, seems to be the story for our week in New Zealand. Perhaps the lost springs in town, nah it’s supposed to pour later in the week, so let’s leave it till then, and Caroline wants to go horse riding so a massage might be needed afterwards. Ah, I know we can co and see the hot water beach.

It was about 1/2 hour drive to Hot Water beach from Whitianga. I check the tides. 1:40 pm low tide, that fits in well with our scheme of not doing much at all today.

We agreed to leave at 12:15 to give us that desired 1 hour window on either side of the tide. There are two car park options at Hot Water beach, the first gets you to the beach but there is quite a walk to the hot water zone, it’s more for surf access, the second is in town has shops and will siphon some money out of your pockets for parking and unhealthy temptations. Of course we suffer the second option.

Armed with a shovel, and reading all about the architecture and appropriate body cooking warnings we’re off to find the elusive, secluded hot water oasis.

Shovel in hand, ready to dig holes in the beach sand.

Hmm, not so secret at all:

A lot of people know about the hot water beach.

Our first impressions were the crowd, and that the water was not hot, after testing a couple of abandoned diggings. But it is not as crowded as it looks, and the water varies in temperature according to where you are. Even a metre difference can mean cool to scalding or surface cool and dig toes to be uncomfortable. The need for a shovel is not high as there are many abandoned sites and the sand collapses when water is reached, so you are soaking in a bit of a slurry.