Kia ora, my name is Andrew Malcolm and together with my wife, we are now managing the Waitangi Soda Springs.
Waitangi Soda Springs reopened on the 21st Dec. 2024, after the devastating floods of 2023, and we are pleased to inform everyone of the new opening hours.
Hours of business – 7 days a week.
Mornings. 6am -10am.
Evenings. 4pm – 9pm.
Needed a sluice out with built up debris but next morning crystal clear and perfect temp for a lie down soak.
Also small hotpool at top of warm waterfall.
Visited in Nov 2024. Have used hot pools at the Mount since they were wood surrounded. Very sad price now $27.30 per adult. Not a nice salt pool anymore, mostly chlorine; feels like a normal swimming pool. Heat of pools is loweredto fairly tepid. May as well just go to your local pools for the cost!!
Follow either the 4wd track or the path by the river bank until you reach the washed out ford/bridge whatever it was, its gone. Follow the cairns rock hopping down this side creek until you hit the river, then its just up the true right a bit. Cant miss it. Seems not much used, but pretty nice actually.
It’s so sad to see that this place is closed because there’s so many good memories here with my family just coming swimming and relaxing. Please someone who has won lotto fix it and re open it.
These pools are amazingly wonderful. Lovely and hot (if you wish) and great for people with arthritis and other ailments. Beautiful healing waters. Well worth a visit. Each pool has a sign to say what the temperature is. We love 41 degrees. Best experience in Northland.
The hot pool is lost, there is only a small pond that you can barely put your feet in. The GPS is accurate, after I find that big rock, I saw a small pond near by, which I have marked on the picture. There are lots of white fibers in the water, which I assume is the thermophile. The temperature is about 20 degree, which is just ‘warmer’ than the river water. Therefore I strongly suggest not to go. It took me 2.5 hours from the morrisons footbridge to the spot, about 6km. After walking down the bridge, there is a 15mins path in the wood, then you will spend most time on the river bank, with slippery rocks. There are no formal path but only orange triangle signs, so you know you are on the right track. At least twice would you need to cross the river with the water level reaching your knees. And at someplace where is very easy to get yourself hurt, you don’t want to break your legs at that place, so be careful.
Temperature was 20 degrees. Beautiful spot but I’ve heard the temperature fluctuates wildly and with sooo much rain this year it was only barely warmed. BUT -a beautiful place to get wet. Swimming under a waterfall at any temperature is great!
Temperature was 28 degrees and PH of 6.6. It has been exceptionally consistently rainy this year and this has probably contributed to the great swimability of the lake at this time. Swam 20 meters out to near the centre without any fluctuation in temperature. Highly recommended this season- June 2023.
This is a fantastic hot spring experience! The access is super easy- 10 stairs directly into the river. The water was very hot in some areas and just over warm in others. It should be called “Hot ‘n’ Warm”. On a Monday school holiday there was 12 other people amongst 6 pools, so not busy at all!! Most highly recommended- a ‘must do’ when in the Roturua area, and you can’t beat the price for family admission- FREE!
My parents owned it for many years. Sad it closed. Amazing place to grow up
Unfortunately the pools are no more! After visiting them and enjoying the unique experience and location several times on our last visit the track had become truly dangerous and the pools had been completely destroyed leaving only rubble on the rock base Unless someone has made the track safe again and rebuilt the pools then they are gone
Good pools if you plan to spend here at least half day. There are at least 12 small pools then 4 hydroslides which are big fun. Water is over 36 degrees in most of the pools. Modern facilities with excellent showers and toilets. Not good: the free storage for personal items is very small. There is at least one lifeguard watching each pool carefully to not let anyone put his head into the water. WHY YOU CAN GET EASILY EAR INFECTIONS OR MENINGITIS FROM WATER??? In the 2 days there was raining and my head got cold and I slide a bit more deeper with water just over my ears Next day I wake up with a pain in my ear. Now after 4 days is still painful even taking painkillers regularly. Parking is also an issue hard to find close by.
These pools sucked to be honest. I had just visited Hurunui and Mackenzie pools, and this one was a bit of a let down after. The pros: Good camping and pleasant spot right next to it, and remote. Big pools, could fit at least 10 people. The cons: It wasn’t very warm at all! It’s a layered heat, where the top is a great hot temp, and soon drops to cold about 10-15cm down. So you sit in it kind of awkardly thinking, it’s kind of nice, but not really. I even did it at night with candles for ambiance, but it wasn’t vibing as much as the Hurunui hot pool for me. It has a lot of gross algal leaves to strain out, and has a lot of gross sediment.
I just visited this one. It’s a pretty unique spot! It’s fairly technical access though, be warned! The pool is fairly small by default. Sometimes it has sediment, sometimes not. I didn’t have sediment on my trip. If it does have sediment, use the white bags under a rock above access to fill (to act as sandbags). Two sandbags here would greatly improve pool depth. The lower larger pool was part of the river when I went, so it was cold. The temp was perfect of the hot pool though. There were two vents of ~40C water, with a small vent of cooler water to keep it optimal. There’s an even hotter water vent nearby, but not in pool. Direction: On a topo50 map, you are aiming for just above the ‘o’ in Morgan. You follow the old trail via pink, orange and white markers, but, the route down to springs is unmarked. If you reach the M, you’ve gone one valley too far (the next valley from this is the large stream tributary marked on map) You kind if drop into a bushy creek and just follow it all the way down (literally), as the end of the creek is also the start when you have to scramble down to the pool. It’s not for the feint hearted, and you’ll likely need some kind of rope to wrap around the log jam for safety, as this part is super exposed. I used a throwrope with a caribeener. Also, it’s slippery!
I did a hot spring loop along with Mackenzie and Hot Spring Creek pools. This was the best by far. Great for candles at nighttime. Plenty of room for 2 maybe 3 people comfortably. It was about 38-39C for me, I needed to add a trickle from the side cooler stream.
I liked that it was hot, and you could see the venting gas in the rock in the pool itself. There was only one pool that I remember seeing, and only would fit one or two people. It’s in a bit of an awkward location to just hang around, which is one reason I voted it lower. It had a bit of algae in it, but not enough to worry me. It was generally, quite pleasant! You could camp at the forks below (Mackenzie biv side of stream). 3 minute walk to pools from there.
Beautiful spot, often go with a few friends, bottle of wine , no togs required.
