Hot Water Beach

I'm up in an area of New Zealand called Coromandel, it's in the North Central part of the country. Yesterday we went to a beach called Hot Water Beach. The premise of the beach is that if you go there within an hour of low tide you can dig a hole that will fill with hot water and have a natural hot water spa. When we got there everyone else had shovels (spades) with them or you could rent one from a local shop. I decided that we didn't need one and so we set off down the empty beach to where all of the people were gathered around. The day was overcast and the weather wasn't particullarly warm but there were plenty of people gathered in two clumps digging holes in the sand and sitting in them. I walked over to a hole that someone had already dug and climbed in and started digging but the water and the sand didn't feel particullarly hot. I tried this at a couple of other pre dug holes and none of them were hot. I started to think that this was a joke that Kiwi's pull on tourists and some people just have low self esteem so they pretend that their hole is hot and just sit in luke warm water that is warmed by the sun pretending that it is warm.
I kept trying different pre dug holes and then found one in the furthest corner up nearest the waves that was SCORCHING!

 I started to dig up around the area with my hands to make the hole bigger and deeper but it was tough because one part was so hot it burnt my hands. I must have looked pathetic pulling up one handful at a time while crying out "ouch, so hot!" enough that a woman who was walking by offered to lend me her shovel to dig out my hole. After it was dug Janelle and I sat in the hot water pool along with everyone else relaxing and enjoying ourselves.

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