Beach of the Week: Royal National Park, New South Wales

The secluded beaches of the Royal National Park are so beautiful words cannot describe and pictures do not do them worthy. The sand is so fresh, it is squeaky and soft. The water was warm even in the Australian winter. The specific beach I hiked to, was an hour bush walk away (6 km). When we got there, there were other back packers that were camping out on the grass hill, but that was it. There were only a few empty boat sheds and the rest was nature to be seen for kilometers. I could have spent all day swimming and relaxing with the solitude of the waves breaking and my friends laughing.

Beach of the Week: Hot Water Beach, NZ

Hot Water Beach, New Zealand

This is hands down, no doubt about it, by far, the coolest beach I’ve ever experienced solely just on the sand. The Hot Water Beach is on a part of the earth’s crust that is unusually thin. This creates hot springs that happen to run just under the beach. So what happens is you dig a hole into the sand is it fills up with “hot tub” temp water. There are even parts of the beach sectioned off because the water that comes up is so hot it boils. The beach is quite touristy and is well known so it was a bit busy, but a worth while experience. There is a local booth that sells shovels just in case you want to join the crowd and give it a shot.