The name might not be all that imaginative, but it is accurate. Hot Water Beach sits on top of a thermal spring that pushes hot water up through the sand. If you dig a hole in just the right spot, you can create your own little hot tub.

The guide books recommend that you visit within two hours of low tide for the best experience. That meant that today, the best time was between noon and 4:00 pm. Our travel schedule aligned perfectly with this, so we picked up sandwiches as we were leaving Waihi and headed north. The road had stunning views at every turn. This is a polite way to say that the road was narrow, winding, and clinging to the side of mountains all the way. I’m exaggerating, of course, but not by much. It was impressive, but not relaxing. So when we arrived, we took a moment to sit in the shade (in our beach chairs) and enjoy the views over the beach.

After lunch, we changed into our swim suits, applied lots of sunscreen, rented a spade, and went in search of the hot water.

It is a large beach, and there aren’t any signs telling you where to dig. But if you follow the crowd, it is soon obvious.

We found a promising spot and went to work.

It isn’t as easy as it looks. As you dig deeper, the water coming up through the sand, pushes more sand into the hole. But eventually we had it deep enough to enjoy. One reason we stopped digging was that as we dug deeper, the sand and the water got hotter.

Sitting in our little hot tub was a little like sitting on a hot water bottle. A very hot, hot water bottle. When a particularly large wave washed into our pool, it brought it back to the perfect temperature. But soon it was hot again, so I started to experiment, because … I’m me. I discovered that the hot spots were very localized. If you moved less than a meter away, the water in the hole might be cold. So I expanded the hot tub trying to get the temperature just right by spanning zones. For a while, my feet were too hot, and my shoulders were too cool. I’ll let you figure out where it was just right.

By the time we left, it was getting very crowded.

Hot Water Beach is definitely worth a visit, but I’m not sure we’ll be back. It’s an interesting novelty, but not as nice as our day at the beach yesterday.

When we got back to the car we changed and then headed to our hotel in Whitianga. We booked a room looking out over the beach.

The water and the wind, along with the drive, was more tiring than we expected, so we decided to eat in tonight. We have a small kitchen, pate, a bottle of lovely Riesling from our winery tour in Blenheim, and the sound of the waves from our open patio door. It’s a good way to end the day.