Waiwera - Auckland's own hot water beach

Waiwera beach is heating up, and locals believe it may be like that permanently.

Bores in the north Auckland town have been overflowing with warm water since the local thermal park closed in early 2018.

The pools used to take a thousand cubic metres of thermal water from nearby springs every day, but now that's been left bubbling out of the ground.

Local resident John Davies told Newshub he noticed the hot water on the beach for himself on Sunday, March 10, after hearing rumours about it before he moved there.

"There is a drain that's pushing approximately 40-degree heated water out on to the beach and creating a little river of warm water running to the ocean," he told Newshub.

Mr Davies said he hasn't had the chance to dig in the beach extensively, but will head there over the weekend to try his luck.

Other locals told Newshub they have been doing daily digs in the hope it they will find warm water and bring back tourists, having lost out on that tourism when the pools closed.

"I'd love it personally if we had a hot water beach. I think it would be a great thing for Waiwera," resident Murray Jurgeleit said.

According to Auckland Council hydrogeologist, Kolt Johnson, if the water is not being pumped into the pools, it has to go somewhere.

"When you stop pumping, the pressure of all the water in the aquifer goes back to that area where you were pumping," he told Newshub in February.

Newshub.