A Fabulous Afternoon

Its midweek in the month of November, and we are traveling from the Northland of New Zealand down to the Coromandel Peninsula. Our trip down takes us past the beautiful city of Auckland with its tall buildings sitting alongside the Pacific Ocean. The weather is fair although it’s not cold; after all it is spring time down here in the southern hemisphere. The landscape is truly amazing and changes rapidly, from city to country with rolling hills and greenery and then once again to the seaside with rocky shores and beautiful sand.
The Coromandel Peninsula is known for its beauty and a special place called Hot Water Beach. You must visit Hot Water Beach 2 hours either side of low tide, that’s four hours, to have the full experience. We looked up the tide table and found low tide in the afternoon was at 6:20pm. Perfect as we arrived 2:30pm to find accommodation for the night, a nice Holiday Park in Mercury Bay, Whitianga, not far from the infamous beach.
Wearing our bathing suits, armed with a shovel and carrying our towels we head the 30 minutes to the beach. Will we know exactly where to go? Not a problem, as we arrive and walk to the beach we sees many people already at the beach in their dug out “spa” holes in the sand. The tide is still receding so we decide to dig our hole closer to the water edge. We begin digging and our hole quickly fills with hot water! It’s not overly easy to dig a hole that is filling water as the sand starts collapsing the sides. The water is actually too hot; we need to find a way to cool it off. Since we were close to the water we opened the end closes to the water to let the ocean come in and bring us cold water. Perfect! I am the first to climb in and sit in our spa hole. It’s lovely!
Many more people have arrived to do the same as we have done. They are from all over the world and have come to share the same experience we have. We share our shovel and make some new friends.
A truly fabulous afternoon.

Karen