I could walk to the beach from my campground so I borrowed a shovel from the campground and walked the 15-minute trek to the beach. As I'd chosen a week day to do this I figured it may not be too busy. Hopefully I can figure out where the hot water is on my own. However, as I walked onto the beach I noticed about 50 people that marked the location. I looked over the area then realized the section where the hot water seeped up through the sand was pretty well taken. So I did what it is customary to do here, I asked to join a two people who were in a pool that would not awkwardly fit the three of us. Pools are right up against other pools, so this isn't third-wheelish. People are also very sociable in this situation and after a few months in NZ I'd been broken in as well, so I went for it. The three of us chatted for about 20 minutes until they had to leave. They'd been there for over an hour at that point. Two others, seeing a vacancy, asked me if they could take join. I said no as this was my spot not theirs. That's not what I said. I, of course, invited them in. Our water was hot. We must have been close to the source. So a neighboring pool asked to join pools to bring a little more hot water into their pool. So our pool doubled in size. Then another asked to do the same. In no time we had a large pool of water with about 10 people in it. One part of the pool may have cooler water, so we'd dig down near the sources and try to circulate the water.
One of the sources was in the middle of the whole area. Several had tried to dig into it but it was too hot. Newbies would come to the area, see the open spot in the middle, and walk into it thinking they could set up shop there. As they sunk in they sink into water near the source and quickly run out. It remained empty the whole time I was there. I happened to be situated near that area though, so if I sat on the sand near it, or would let me hand rest on that area and sink into it, I'd suddenly feel the heat and retreat. Digging into this area would bring in hot water to the pool, so it was good to be there. We just all sat on the opposite side resting our feet above the water level so as not to sink in and burn ourselves. As the tide rose the pools closer to the ocean were wiped out. Eventually a wave came over our sand wall and ended the event. But the day will stand out in my mind as a highlight from the trip. Fascinating nature enjoyed with a neat social scene.
Yesterday I'd gone down to Cathedral Cove. My pockets had been full and somewhere along the way I dropped my sunglasses. As I didn't have any plans for the evening I decided to go back down to Cathedral Cove to look for them. Maybe I could get some more sunset pics while I was there. What I'd gotten weren't so spectacular the night before. Or I could just enjoy an empty beach. I didn't find the sunglasses, but I did find a near empty beach.
I met a security guard that night that used to live in my area back in the States. He had moved to NZ about 7 years ago, but still, talking about local roads and changes that have taken place since he left was cool. So random. I'm on the opposite side of the world out trying to get a signal on my phone in front of the dining hall when we got to chatting. Sometimes the world is very small.