Lake Rotoiti Hot Spirngs

Our weekend included a trip to Lake Rotoiti Hot Springs.

[In Maori, 'roto' means lake and 'iti means little.]

 They are only accessible by boat or plane.

There are seven hot tubs fed from underground thermal springs.

 They get cooler from top to bottom.

Hubby went up to the lookout and took some photos.

The swans paid no attention to all the human goings-on!

Tennis Court size hot pool

It may not be what you imagined, but this is the place I mentioned in my previous post, Waingaro Hot Springs. It is all naturally hot-springs fed, but it is treated so that you can swim and splash and not worry about contracting some strange diseases. There are 3 pools, one for kiddies, one for swimming and one for relaxing (that's the hottest one).

This is a quaint little place that reminds me of a scene out of the 60's or 70's. Kinda like 'Dirty Dancing' with water! 

Thermal pools

I've been in New Zealand for 19 months now and I'm still surprised at the differences.

I was just thinking about the first time I was at a public thermal pool. It was outside of Auckland, in July--cold as can be--and a new experience on my second day in the country. My first reaction was excitement for a new experience combined with a bit of sensory confusion. 

Picture this: It's cold, it's raining on-and-off and we walk into the pools area. Some pools have covers stretched across them, some are totally open to the elements, some are totally enclosed, but all have steam rising in alluring abundance. We also see a varied combination of people: some in wet bathing suits running across the courtyard, others bundled in parkas and sitting at picnic tables plus many others in various in-between degrees of undress, some wet, some dry. It's a brand-new experience for me as I realized that this sight is an every-day occurrence here.

The changing rooms are culturally different too, as they have a big common-room for dressing and common showers. Fortunately, I'm not a prude, so I don't have a problem with it, but I smile to myself thinking about some people that I know that would end up changing into togs in the loo!!