Hot Water Beach

18-12-2013

   Hot Water Beach. Yes, that's the official title to be found on the map, but it is not exactly what it sounds like. I had thought it was hot spring water flowing into the ocean and mixing with it to make it much warmer, but not quite. It's actually a hot spot under the sand, and at low tide people walk around until they find an adequately hot (but not too hot!) spot in the sand, and then they start digging. The end result is a conglomeration of shallow, hot-tub like pools in the sand, each one surrounded by the sand that was dug out of it. It smells slightly sulfurous but really it's hardly noticeable. 

    If you get too hot you can always jump into the ocean. Incidentally, it is actually a little bit warmer than most other places. By that I mean I could actually tolerate swimming without a wetsuit. It's chilly, but not cold. (Fellow readers who have ever swam in Lake Superior can really appreciate this difference.) Also, the waves are usually a decent size and it's extremely fun to swim there. Proof is everywhere you look, since there are usually a dozen surfers to be seen in any direction. 

   The trick with these hot water pools is that the tide has to be out in order for the beach to be there, or at least the part of the beach where you can dig. Yesterday we missed low tide for the day. It was at 1:45 pm and we were tied up in Coromandel for so long we didn't get there until 5:30 or so. We made the best of it and swam in the waves. I don't (yet!) have a surfboard, so I body surfed instead. I stayed a little closer to shore for a number of reasons. One: to stay out of the surfers' ways. Two: to catch the smaller waves. I could leave the bigger ones for the surfers with boards, they were too heavy for body surfing anyways. Three: I just listened to multiple podcasts on sharks, and I now know that they are known to hang around shallow waters, but especially around shelves and drop-offs. I also read that beach sign that warned against currents because of the drop off. Not a problem at high tide, but now I know it's there. And yes, I did think about sharks, and currents, and wisely decide not to be anywhere near the drop off. 

   We swam for a while, getting out only because we were hungry and we wanted to make dinner. We rinsed off in the parking lot showers and headed to a different, less busy, spot along the beach to cook up some burgers. 

   We hung around for a while. Why? We were determined to experience this hot water beach thing. The next day we had to be back in Coromandel (we're getting our Warrant Of Fitness for the van, it expires soon), inconveniently at low tide time, so that left us with the low tide in between: 2am on the dot. The more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea. The moon is full right now, the stars have been bright, and it seemed like a good opportunity to do something neat.

   Turns out, it was. We also weren't the first ones to think of it. We drove back, followed tracks through freshly wet sand, and arrived at precisely 2am to find a small party of people already lounging about in their pools. It reminded me of the footage you see on Discovery of baby sea turtles hatching at night and spilling out onto the sand. Every few feet there was another pool. But I don't mean to make it sound like it was overcrowded, because there were probably only fifteen people around. It was just funny to see all the pools clustered in one area, like a flash mob sand box. We respectively left a few feet between us and our neighbors and dug our own pool in a spot where the sand felt right. 

   We relaxed and sprawled out in the water. I was surprised to find that it would unexpectedly heat up, and we'd find ourselves suddenly jumping up to reposition because where our hand, or elbow, or foot had been for the last ten minutes was suddenly too hot to touch. We had fun with it, though, and laughed a lot. We only left because the tide always turns around, and eventually we were in grave danger of being invaded by waves. Cold waves, comparatively, so we quit while we were ahead. 

   The experience was awesome, and I'm so glad we actually got up at our alarm's insistence to do it. If anyone is interested in ever visiting the hot water beach, I say do it at night. It was unforgettable.