In our personal ranking, this is the best of such sites in New Zealand. There’s lots of variety and fewer people. Orakei Korako Park is off the main road, so you don’t get all those crowds that walk along Wai-O-Tapu. It’s also called the Hidden Valley for a reason. The Emerald Terrace generates up to 20 million liters of sulfur a day! The three terraces above it were formed during a massive earthquake in 131 BC. They are covered with black, green and yellow algae that grow at temperatures of 35-49 degrees Celsius.

Wai-O-Tapu Geothermal Zone

Waiotapu is much more popular than Orakei Korako, but that’s not to say it’s better. It’s just different. Wai-O-Tapu means “holy waters” in Māori. There are some colorful lakes on the main (short) track, and the rest after Orakei Korako didn’t impress. If you are in a hurry, the long trek can be skipped.

The main attraction is the Champagne Pool. It’s so called because it has a lot of bubbles that rise like champagne.

The second cool place is the Artist’s Palette, a lake painted in different colors.

The third place that impressed was Devil’s Bath. The water is really that acid green color!!! Everything else looks more modest.

Near some of the hot springs there are a lot of stinky fumes, we just held our breath and ran over to fresh air. It wouldn’t hurt to have some sort of face mask for places like this. And in general, there is quite a lot of stench, asthmatics are better to go accompanied by a healthy person, or refrain from visiting at all.

Lady Knox Geyser

This geyser is located in Wai-O-Tapu and is remarkable for its punctuality: it erupts every day at exactly 10.15 am. The height of the jet is 10-20 meters. Where did this precision come from? Once workers washed clothes in it and discovered that the geyser reacts to soap. So the park workers simply add some organic soap to trigger the eruption. Since it only happens once a day, crowds gather, you have to arrive early to get a good photo spot.

Mud Pool (Mud Pool)

The largest mud pool in New Zealand is located at Wai-O-Tapu. Until the 1920s, it was a mud volcano that was transformed into a lake by erosion.

What else to see and do in Rotorua City

1. Te Puia Geothermal Zone: hot springs, Pohutu Geyser, Māori performances.
2. Whakarewarewa – Māori village.
3. Ohinemutu – Māori village. 4.
4. Redwoods Treewalk – you can walk along paths amongst the giant trees.
5. Polynesian Spa with mineral springs.
6. Helicopter or seaplane flights over Mount Tarawera or Whakaari Volcano (White Island).
7. Night market on Thursdays from 5pm on Tutanekai St: local souvenirs, street food, coffee, wine.
8. Also, in Rotorua city itself, Kuirau Park has a couple of puddles that are steaming, but it’s not even worth spending time on them.

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Tangaroa: The Magic of Active Volcanoes

New Zealand has over 50 volcanoes, and many of them are active. This provides a unique opportunity for extreme sports enthusiasts to explore the magical world of burning craters and lava flows. According to Maori mythology, the god of war and the seas, Tangaroa, dwells in the depths of volcanoes and lends his mighty power to those willing to conquer its beauty and danger.

The warm caress of boiling springs

World famous geysers and boiling springs are another unique feature of New Zealand. Watching huge columns of steam soar to the sky and water boiling and bubbling evokes inexpressible feelings of respect for the might of nature. Boiling springs are not only an impressive sight, but also a great opportunity to feel the warmth and affection of these unique natural phenomena.

Volcanic tracks and lava caves

For the true extreme and adventure lovers, New Zealand offers many volcanic tracks and lava caves to explore. One such place is Tongariro, an active stratovolcano with a Red Crater at its summit that is impressive in its beauty and power. A trek to Tongariro is a real adventure for mountaineering and trekking enthusiasts.

Extreme and safe

Thermal adventures can be quite dangerous and it is important to follow safety rules and advice from experienced guides. Some places may not be accessible to regular tourists due to their activity or danger, so it is always worth referring to local recommendations and cautions.

New Zealand: Land of Adventure

Thermal adventures for extreme adventurers are a unique opportunity to experience the power and beauty of New Zealand’s nature. Dive into the world of active volcanoes, explore boiling springs and go on volcanic treks to experience the true spirit of adventure and experience the power of nature. Keep safety in mind and respect the environment to make your trip unforgettable and leave vivid memories to last a lifetime.

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The warmth of thermal springs: a gift from the gods

According to Māori legends, thermal springs are gifts from the gods. Māori believe that the spirit world and the world of the living are closely connected, and thermal springs are places where the two worlds intersect. The god Tane-mahuta, protector of forests and animals, is considered the patron of thermal springs, which serve as a bridge between light and darkness.

Thermal springs as healing centers

For Māori, thermal springs not only bring warmth and comfort, but also serve as places of healing. The warm water is considered to have healing properties, helping to relieve various ailments and illnesses. Māori often visit thermal springs for ceremonies and healing rituals, believing that by doing so they are in harmony with nature and attract the favor of the gods.

Cultural values and respect for nature

Māori’s connection to nature is also evident in their cultural values and respect for the environment. They believe that nature is their bounty and should be cherished. Māori are actively involved in conservation and traditional resource use to preserve thermal springs and other unique natural phenomena for future generations.

A symbol of unity and balance

Thermal springs also symbolize unity and balance. For Māori, connecting with nature has deep spiritual meaning and helps them find inner peace and harmony. Each visit to a Maori thermal spring is not only a physical experience, but also a spiritual reconnection to the roots and traditions of their people.

Connecting with nature: a unique experience for all

Māori legends and traditions around thermal springs give these amazing places even more meaning and beauty. By visiting New Zealand’s thermal spas, tourists and locals alike can enjoy bathing in the power of the water and rejuvenate their bodies and spirits in the embrace of nature. Connecting with nature through thermal springs is an unforgettable experience that helps us see the beauty and richness of the world around us and feel harmony with nature and ourselves.

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Unique natural gifts

Taupo is located in the north of Lake Taupo, which is the largest lake in New Zealand. Due to its proximity to volcanic areas, the area has abundant hot springs and thermal waters that attract travelers from all over the world. Water temperatures can reach up to 40°C, making these baths the perfect place to relax and recharge your energy.

Luxury Spa Resorts

Taupo offers a wide range of luxury spa resorts where visitors can enjoy thermal baths surrounded by beautiful natural scenery. Many of these spas are lakeside, which creates a unique atmosphere and allows guests to enjoy amazing views of the water and mountains around them.

Health and Wellness

Taupo’s thermal baths are known for their therapeutic properties and ability to improve health and well-being. The mineral elements in the waters help to improve circulation, relieve muscle tension and ease joint pain. A bath in the thermal springs is the perfect way to relax after a long day of active adventure and exploration.

Immersion in nature

Vacationing in Taupo thermal baths provides a unique opportunity to immerse yourself in the surrounding nature and enjoy its beauty. Capture the sunrise or sunset over the lake, take a dip in the warm water and enjoy the peace and tranquility surrounded by beautiful nature.

Unforgettable experience

Bathe in Taupo’s luxurious thermal baths and have an unforgettable experience that will stay with you for a lifetime. This unique experience of relaxation and recharging will allow you to forget your everyday worries and enjoy the delights of nature that Taupo so generously provides to its visitors. Get ready for an amazing journey into a world of luxury and tranquility on the shores of Lake Taupo!

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Select Brimar Lodge & Spa: Escape to an Oasis of Relaxation

Select Breamar Lodge & Spa is the perfect destination for those seeking privacy and tranquility. Set amidst beautiful gardens and green hills, this spa resort offers you the chance to take a dip in the hot thermal pools and enjoy unique mineral water treatments. Massages, wraps and aromatherapy will help you to completely relax and forget about everyday worries.

Glenalvon Lodge Motel & Bed & Breakfast: Harmony with Nature

Located just a short walk from the city center, Glenalvon Lodge Motel & Bed & Breakfast offers a unique opportunity to experience the thermal springs that flow directly from the ground in this cozy motel. You can relax in the spacious hot tubs with delightful views of the surrounding nature and enjoy a peaceful and tranquil environment.

Relaxation and Adventure

Hanmer Springs provides not only relaxation opportunities, but also unique adventures in the surrounding nature. After energizing yourself in the thermal springs, head to the nature trails for walking or biking, enjoy rafting on the rushing rivers, or refresh yourself with horseback riding. Hanmer Springs provides genuine enjoyment of the surrounding beauty and the opportunity to connect to nature.

Explore the Thermal Wonders of Hanmer Springs

Hanmer Springs is the perfect destination for those looking to rejuvenate while enjoying the natural thermal springs and surrounding nature. Whether it’s luxury spa resorts or secluded thermal pools, Hanmer Springs will provide you with a unique experience of relaxation and adventure that will be remembered for years to come. Take the opportunity to immerse yourself in natural thermal oases and reboot your spirit in this amazing resort town.

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Hell’s Gate Geothermal Reserve & Mud Spa is located in the city of Rotorua, on the North Island of New Zealand. This place is one of the top tourist attractions in the region, thanks to its unique geothermal springs and mud baths.

The Hell’s Gate geyser reservoir and mud spa offers visitors a unique opportunity to immerse themselves in the world of geysers, mud baths and steam springs. Here you can see the largest geysers in the Southern Hemisphere, as well as try out the therapeutic properties of mud baths.

In the geyser reservoir, you can see powerful emissions of steam and hot water that rise to a height of up to 30 meters. Boiling mud pots and other geothermal phenomena can also be seen here.

The mud baths at Hell’s Gate are some of the most popular in New Zealand. The mud that is used in the baths contains many beneficial minerals and trace elements that are good for the skin and the body as a whole.

In addition, the “Gates of Hell” has a museum where you can learn more about geothermal phenomena and the history of this place. You can also buy souvenirs and gifts here.

The geyser reservoir and mud spa “Gates of Hell” is a unique place that is worth a visit for anyone interested in geothermal phenomena and who wants to try the therapeutic properties of mud baths.

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Volcanoes and geysers, caves and waterfalls, fjords and glaciers, rare reptiles and birds, unique trees and flowers – it is difficult to even list all the natural wonders with which this small state, located in the “far south”, amazes the traveler.

But the most important miracle of New Zealand is the famous Rotorua Valley, which every visitor of New Zealand considers his duty to visit. And the New Zealanders themselves do not ignore this amazing nook of nature with their attention.

Rotorua Valley

Rotorua is located in the center of New Zealand’s North Island on the Volcanic Plateau. The Maori, the longtime inhabitants of this island, named the valley Takiwa-Waiariki, meaning “Land of Hot Water”. Even on the streets of Rotorua, the center of this geothermal region, you can see jets of white steam spurting from the cracks in the sidewalks. Hundreds of hot and cold springs can be found around the town and on the shores of the lake of the same name.

The Maoris who lived here were not a timid people. They built their village of Whakarewarewa in the heart of this unusual area, among the whistling jets of steam, gurgling hot springs, the roar of geysers and the roar of mud pots. And they tried to make better use of the natural features of Rotorua: huts were built on sites with warm soil warmed from below, they built pools where they bathed in hot water all year round, and even cooked fish, immersing it in a kind of “avoska” directly into the natural boiling water.

And nowadays the hotels built here have pools filled with thermal waters, and heating in the hotels is provided by the heat of the earth’s bowels.

But the main attraction of Rotorua is its famous geysers. There are dozens of them here, and the jets, beating at four or five meters in height, envelope in clouds of steam and the shore of Lake Rotorua, and the outskirts of the village, where red wooden statues of Maori gods with fierce faces and sticking out their tongues are lined up in a row along the only street.

The most powerful geyser – Pohutu – throws a jet of boiling water thirty meters upwards. The water eruption lasts for an hour or even longer. Sometimes several geysers strike simultaneously, and sometimes they “work” alternately, as if trying to surpass each other by the power of jets and the unusual shape of the fountain.

White siliceous deposits decorating the holes of natural fountains have yellow shades formed from dissolved hydrogen sulfide in the water. Unfortunately, not all of this not too fragrant gas is deposited in the form of sulphuric secretions, and in the air of Rotorua even on the approach to the lake you can feel its specific “aroma”.

The Poirenga River, which flows into Lake Rotorua, is fed by cold and hot springs. In some places the jets of springs do not have time to mix and when you put your hands in the water, you feel both warm and cold at the same time. Hot springs come from the bottom of the lake. And on the island of Mokoya, located in the middle of the lake, the most famous and popular among tourists is the Hinemoa hot spring, bathing in which is an obligatory ritual for visitors to Rotorua.

The locals also bathe in Hinemoa. For them, it is an ancient sacred rite that brings health and strength to warriors. Māori believe that every lake or hot spring in Rotorua is home to a taniwa-igarara, a dragon-like fairytale creature that guards its hot home from evil spirits. According to Maori legend, the moon itself disappears from the firmament once a month to bathe in the magical underground lake Aewa, which feeds the geysers. After bathing in its living water. The moon gains strength and sets off on a new journey across the sky. That is why the residents of Vakarevareva willingly bathe in the waters of hot springs, which have such healing power.

About ten kilometers southeast of this kingdom of geysers in the crater of an extinct volcano are hidden the famous Vaimangu Lakes – two reservoirs of blue and green colors. The coloration of water in them is explained by the different composition of rocks through which the springs that feed the lakes flow. Multicolored water is complemented here by brightly colored rocks of the crater, to which iron oxides in some places gave a red tint, and sulfur deposits – yellow.

For many centuries Vaimanga was adorned with marvelous Pink and White Terraces, which occupied an area of more than five hectares and surpassed even the world-famous Pamukkale terraces in Turkey by the beauty of their openwork cascades of lime tuff, deposited from hot springs.

Travelers were especially impressed by the White Terraces, which resembled a giant marble staircase covered with openwork carvings. Alas, in 1886, a catastrophic eruption of the nearby Tarawera volcano overnight destroyed this rare masterpiece, created by thermal springs over many thousands of years.

That year, on June 10, powerful tremors awakened residents in the area. A strong explosion split the top of Tarawera, and thick clouds of smoke and steam, illuminated by flashes of lightning, rose ten kilometers above the mountain. The flaming debris separated from the pillar of fire and fell into the lake with a rumble and splash. Soon it turned into a kind of hell, where a horrible mixture of mud and steam swirled. The evergreen forests on the slopes of Tarawera were destroyed, as were the fields and gardens of the surrounding area. Two Maori villages were completely inundated by the mud flow, and a hail of volcanic bombs rained down on the neighboring town of Wairoa, killing sixteen of its inhabitants.

The terraces were buried under a thick layer of volcanic ash and pieces of lava from the volcano’s crater. However, the hot springs themselves were not permanently blocked by the volcano. In 1900, a colossal fountain of hot water, the likes of which had never been seen in New Zealand, struck Waimangu from the ground. At the time, the Waimangu geyser was the most powerful in the world and threw a powerful jet of water mixed with steam, rocks and sand to a height of four hundred and fifty meters!

It would rage and roar for hours, then shut up, but thirty hours later it would again spew out a fountain of boiling water. It was not easy to calculate the time when the next water eruption would begin, and several inquisitive gawkers paid with their lives for trying to study the silent giant.

For four years, the giant geyser raged in the valley, shocking eyewitnesses with the fantastic size of its fountain. Then the Waimangu jet began to weaken, and in 1908 the geyser ceased to exist.

Another thermal area lies half a hundred kilometers south of Rotorua, near the largest New Zealand Lake Taupo. Here, in the Wairakei Valley, there is a famous “steam cave” Karapiti, from which with enormous force bursts out clubs of steam, announcing the surroundings with an intimidating roar. The world’s first geothermal power station was built here in 1958, using underground water to generate electricity.

Lake Taupo itself is amazingly picturesque. The depth of this huge body of water, located in the heart of the Volcanic Plateau, reaches a hundred meters. To the south, the lake is overlooked by a mighty volcanic massif that includes three of the country’s four active volcanoes: Ruapehu, Tongariro and Ngauruhoe.

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