Does what it says on the tin. Dig yourself a hole or steal someone else's. It was freezing when we went and the water really was boiling thankfully.
Take a spade! This is an incredible place- I don’t think I believed it until I was lying in one of the hot water pools!
It was busy, but there are quiet places on the beach too. Car park is $4 a hour
It is a must see!
Went to Hot Water Beach a few weeks ago. It was cool outside which made it even more amazing. We were supplied with spades from our hotel. We walked around until we found an area that was warm to stand on and started digging. It's a challenge as the sand keeps caving in on itself but my husband got the job done. The water was very warm...even hot in some places. At times you could not stand in certain areas as it was too hot. There were so many people on the beach all just sitting in the warm water. Some, would then run into the ocean....it was way too cold for me to do that. You must remember to check the tide timings and go two hours either side of low tide. So much fun. This is definitely worth doing!
We came as part of a day tour from Auckland. This was a new one for me and I do love hot springs! Our guide knew the right time for the tides and provided our shovels and gave us some tips. Once the hot tub is dug just wiggle your feet back and forth to release the hot water from below. There are some really hot spots. It was a fun unusual experience and not to be missed.
So we went to the beach, hired a spade and dug ourselves a hole near the low tide mark and it filled with water.
Nothing special, except this was a geothermal beach and the water was like 60 or so degrees (centigrade for you Americans).
I have read of people complaining that it's not hot, it's too crowded, blah, blah, blah. Gee people complain a lot, don't they?
We got there around 1.5 hours before the low tide. We had hired the spade from the tourist park and parked our camper in the carpark at the rate of $2 per hour.
We wandered down to the beach and there was only one other family there with their hole already dug.
I took the very technical approach of looking for a spot that had steam coming out of the sand (did the sooks the didn't find hot water try that?) and dug a hole.
HOT!!! Very hot. Exactly what I was after. It was too hot for my wife and daughter so they dug their own little pool and regulated the temperature with cold water from the beach.
We then laid in our respective pools for over an hour.
In that time I saw the beach fill up. I saw plenty of people just dig any old where and wonder why they didn't enjoy my warm water. Every now and then I scooped out a little bit of sand with my hands and when I did so the temperature increased significantly.
Outside the weather was a little cold, it even rained a little bit but insulated in my geothermal pool I really couldn't cared if it snowed!
Very relaxing and it met, and smashed, all of our expectations.
So we just laid there and enjoyed the scenery.
