Hot Water Beach

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View over the beach, the actual Hot Water Beach is located exactly in the center of the picture
Hot Water Beach
Hot Water Beach settlement
spherical concretion south of Hot Water Beach, Castle Island in the background

The Hot Water Beach is a stretch of beach on the Pacific coast about 12 km from the town of Whitianga removed. It is located in the Thames-Coromandel District on the Coromandel Peninsula of New Zealand's North Island .

The beach bears his name, which translates as "hot water beach", because of the escape of thermal water on a narrow section of the sandy beach. About 2 km below the surface of the earth are about 170 ° C hot layers of rock, which are remnants of volcanic activity from a period of 5 to 9 million years ago. Above are reservoirs of hot water. Cold groundwater seeps into the rock, in its place hot water rises through cracks in the rock. It emerges in two sources, "Maori" in the north with a temperature of 64 ° C and an output of 10 to 15 L / min and "Orua" 20 m further south with 60 ° C.

The mineral-rich water has a neutral pH value and contains calcium , magnesium , sodium , fluorine and bromine as well as silicates . Carbon dioxide dissolved in the water emerges in the form of bubbles.

The area where the hot water comes out is only not covered by the sea for 1 to 2 hours during low tide. During this time, the beach section is used by locals and tourists who dig hollows in the sand to bathe in the warm water. The annual number of visitors in 2011 was around 700,000, with around 210,000 tourists coming from outside New Zealand. This makes the beach the main geothermal attraction in the Waikato region .

South of the sources are the settlement of Hot Water Beach , a guarded swimming beach and a covered rubble of beach on which spherical concretions are applied to the Moeraki Boulders on the coastal Otago 's remember, even if they are much less well trained. The beach can be accessed from State Highway 25 , a few miles away . To the north are the village of Hahei and Cathedral Cove .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Information board "Sun, sand surf & spa" at the Hot Water Beach
  2. ^ Helga Neubauer: Hot Water Beach . In: The New Zealand Book . 1st edition. NZ Visitor Publications , Nelson 2003, ISBN 1-877339-00-8 , pp. 241 .
  3. ↑ Sandra Barns, Katherine Luketina : Valuing uses of the Waikato regional geothermal resource . Ed .: Waikato Regional Council . November 2011, ISSN 2230-4355 , p.   11 (English, online [PDF; 592 kB ; accessed on December 14, 2014]).
  4. ^ Hot Water Beach. Waikato Regional Council, archived from the original on February 10, 2013 ; accessed on April 15, 2018 (English, original website no longer available).

Coordinates: 36 ° 52 ′ 54 ″  S , 175 ° 49 ′ 12 ″  E