On our first day of rest we made a small 22km tour to Hahei, north of Hot Water Beach. There we hiked the 45min hike to Cathedral Cove in 20min. Cathedral Cove is a gently used rock tunnel that connects two beautiful beaches. Although the whole thing is probably in every guidebook and the parking lots above were extremely full, the visitors were well distributed on the beaches, so we could enjoy the early afternoon there.
Just in time for low tide we drove back to the beach of our campground, the Hot Water Beach. There it looked as if gold had been found there shortly before. A part of the beach was totally dug up and the brave gold diggers were sitting proudly in their holes. The local hardware store was probably doing the business of a lifetime selling shovels. Some also sat in their ponds as if ordered and not picked up, as if they didn't even know why they had dug for anything.
In reality, the tourists were digging their own hot pools, as hot groundwater streams become accessible in the sand at low tide. The business of a lifetime is not done by one hardwarestore, but by many locals together, renting out all their spades daily for $5. Some even manage to sell shovels to the tourists, which they then probably carry around the whole vacation :-) With tandem and trailer, you fortunately do not get the idea to invest money in further weight.