Hot Water Beach

Here's a place I want to visit, once the boys are a little older.  Out on the Coromandel Peninsula (the Door County of the North Island), is Hot Water Beach. 

New Zealand has lots of natural geothermal hot springs.  Hot Water Beach is one of them.  Hot mineral water bubbles up from the ground, percolates up through the sand, and then seeps out into the ocean. 

Here's how you enjoy Hot Water Beach.  Go when it's a little cool so that you can see the sand steaming.  Pick a spot right at the edge of the waves.  Use your little sand spade and your hands to dig a hole big enough to sit in.  It will fill up from below with hot water.  Be careful not to burn your hands.  Use your bucket to add cool ocean water until you have the perfect temperature.  Climb in and enjoy your natural hot tub.