Hell's Gate Hot Spring
As legend has it, spa culture began in New Zealand when warrior Tamatea called on the volcano to save his party from freezing after shipwrecking their canoe. Ariki answered by exploding the Whanganui River all the way to Nelson, giving Tamatea an unbelievable place to take a dip.
Seven hundred years later, the place is still run by Tamatea’s descendants, who continue to welcome cold and weary travellers - as I certainly was when I visited Hell's Gate on location for Broadsheet and Tourism New Zealand.
Hell's Gate visitors can clean their skin by lathering up in mud, before exfoliating and cleansing with a soak in the sulphur spa. If getting your hands literally dirty isn’t your thing, there’s also a one and one-and-a-half hour walk where you can witness erupting waters, an active mud volcano, land coral and a hot waterfall.
