Soak Your Troubles Away: New Zealand’s Hot Pools

I wrote this in 2016 or 2017 during the two years I lived in New Zealand. Some details — prices, hours, what’s open — may have changed, but the experience and my love for this place haven’t.

New Zealand is famous for its thermal activity — we have hot pools, hot water beaches, hot water waterfalls, hot water streams, boiling mud pools, and an entire city with steam and boiling water that randomly comes up out of the ground. If you enjoy sitting back in a nice warm tub and soaking your troubles away then it is the place for you.

There are over 100 hot pools here — NZHotPools.co.nz counts 107 but there are more that aren’t on the site. They have a handy map that shows you where they are. As you can see from the map, they are all over NZ — especially around the Rotorua area. There’s a huge variety to pick from.

Spa Pools

There are several managed spas such as the Polynesian Spa in Rotorua and Hanmer Springs in the South Island. These places have multiple hot pools and offer spa treatments. Hanmer Springs’ pools have varying temperatures and varying degrees of treatment of the water — some of the pools are untreated and you shouldn’t put your head underwater while others are fully treated with waterfalls and jets that massage sore muscles. Hanmer has a lazy river and water slides all with naturally hot water.

Managed Hot Pools

The typical managed hot pool in New Zealand is a relatively simple affair — usually with a few public pools and soaking areas with varying temperatures, changing rooms, and toilets. Most of them also have private pools you can rent for 30 minutes or an hour if you want to soak in private or forgot your togs (swimsuit), although most also rent cheap togs and towels. People are pretty relaxed with what is worn in the pools and you see people in shorts and T-shirts pretty regularly. The private rooms sometimes have a toilet in the room and sometimes don’t — one of our favourites has the private rooms open on one side overlooking the bush with a fountain feeding into it.

Natural Hot Pools

If you’re more adventurous there are quite a few hot pools just out in the open and free to the public. They won’t be built up and you’ll want to do a little homework. One of these is a place called Kerosene Creek outside of Rotorua. A bit of a drive down a dirt road will land you at a parking spot with a simple toilet and a rough shed for changing clothes. A very quick walk and you’re at the creek — you can’t miss it for the steam rising off the water as it winds its way through the woods. My partner says that when he was young he and his siblings would get in up the stream and make their way down to the soaking area, clambering over rocks as they went.

A few steps down the path and you’ll come to a simple waterfall. A little further along there’s a much bigger one with a nice deep pool at the base and a huge tree to hang your clothes on. When we were there only one person was soaking but it can get crowded — go early morning or later in the day if you want some peace.

Two important notes for Kerosene Creek:

Car break-ins are a known and ongoing problem at the car park — recent visitors report broken glass in the car park. Take your valuables with you to the creek. Don’t leave anything visible in the car.

Keep your head above water. This is standard advice for all NZ thermal pools — there is a small risk of amoebic meningitis if geothermal water gets up your nose. It can’t infect you through your skin so a soak is perfectly safe, just keep your head up.

And note that the locals don’t necessarily wear togs when they soak — if that offends you then the natural pools aren’t for you.