Stinking Hot

Stinking Hot
Ngawha, New Zealand

Ngawha, New Zealand

Ngawha Ginn Springs, pronounced Na-Far were a recommendation that we picked up from our friends Marco and Ursala. Ngawha is a town with little in it save for the only prison in the Northland. However this former mining town is now renowned for its rustic sulphur hot springs.

The benefit with being rustic is that unlike the shiny clean and pretty hot springs that have popped up elsewhere in NZ, these hot pools are rugged, wooden framed, sand bottomed and muddy watered and as a result the entrance fees are just a meagre $5. The changing rooms are essentially wonky sheds, the showers are cold and the floors definitely haven’t seen a hose or a broom in the last 12 months but this was one of the absolute highlights of our visit to NZ.

Thankfully we had been advised by some wise friends to buy some old swimwear from a charity shop as after a dunking in sulfurous pools they would probably never smell the same again. So Tim managed to source some rather fetching leopard print shorts and I got a polka dot cossie and with some fetching sarongs we were set.

We knew Ngawha was going to be rustic but it still managed to exceed our expectations. The pools varied from really hot, to really really hot and even super hot ‘enter at your own risk’.

We had the pools entirely to ourselves for a good hour, which is about all we could take the heat and smell for.

We tried to endure a cold shower before we left but it was all a bit too much so we left smelling a lot like rotten eggs and old rope.

Next stop Pahia in the Bay of Islands for a hot shower to rid of us the sulfurous stench.