Let's build our own private hot tub!

My group took a small getaway trip this weekend; it was a much needed one. My class had a substitute on Thursday. Let's just say it was a difficult day. :) Brother Jacobs picked us Colwill girls up after school on Thursday and we headed out with the rest of our girls to Hot Water Beach. Hot Water Beach is about 2 1/2 hours north of Auckland just outside the city of Coromandel. This place is truly amazing. Under this beach is a reservoir of hot water and rocks. The heat coming up under the sand and water is from remnant volcanic activity that happened millions of years ago. The spring bubbles, not because of boiling water, but because carbon dioxide is being released. You can dig holes and get at the hot spring water when the water is at low tide. Everyone, no matter their age, is like a little kid at this beach. It's so fun to dig in the sand and collect the water to make your own little hot tub!When you found a hot spot, you didn't need to bury
your feet very far in the water/sand to feel it.

There were so many people around wanting to dig there that we had to be kind of aggressive. While we were waiting for the tide to go out, we had to stake out our digging spot so others wouldn't take our space. Ha ha with all 16 of us, we made quite a big circle. I think people were annoyed with how much space we were taking up, but we needed lots of space so oh well. :)

In our circle...no one's taking our spot!

Figuring out a strategy. Where do we want to start digging?

Frustrated because the tide kept washing away our walls and filling in our holes. :/

Even Bro. Jacobs joined in with the digging!

Sitting triumphantly in our hole!It really was the funniest thing to watch everyone digging their own holes,
and just lounging in the shallow pools when they were done.

This morning some of us got up really early to watch the sun rise. It was gorgeous!

After we cleaned up the houses we were staying in, the group headed out to Cathedral Cove. Unfortunately, the weather was really bad and the cove was closed; you have to hike 40 mins. down to the beach, but you could only go down half of the trail. I really wanted to go down to the water and see the beach because that is where part of the second Narnia movie was filmed. We took a short little hike on some of the other trails, enjoyed the view of the cove from above, and then made our way back to Auckland.