Te Aroha, Hikes and Hot Pools

Our first destination south of Auckland was a tiny town called Te Aroha. We chose it because of its remoteness and because it was on the way south.

The holiday park we stayed in epitomized remoteness and we had a tiny little cabin, with no heat, but ample bugs.

Here is the literally the eastern half of main street of Te Aroha, it is two-blocks long with some small shops and restaurants. Many of the people we came across asked us why we chose to come to Te Aroha, which confirmed our aim of getting off the tourist track for a bit.

We began our climb of Mount Te Aroha, which is 950 meters up the side of a steep mountain. It was very lush forests with steep switchbacks and rocky sections.

The first lookout point looks out over the town below and a wetland area just south of the main part of town. This lookout was the meeting spot. On the way up was a guy from a Polynesian Island of a few hundred people who works on a dairy farm, his ex-wife, and their grandson. On the way down, it was a guy from Uruguay who works on a dairy farm, his wife, a friend and their combined 3 kids. All of them were really friendly and we learned that this was a heavy dairy region. Along the track we also met a lady who was a teacher and was about to take a year off and travel like us. NZ is really a friendly place.

After a 3-hour hike with almost no breaks, we reached the summit and the antennae tower.

The views were amazing from here and you could see for what seemed like hundreds of miles in all directions. You could see both section of the west coast and the northeast coast of the North Island.

Here you can see the ocean towards the Coromandels and then down the coast towards Tauranga. Out in the distance you can make out an island.

To the west and south were nothing but farms.

We also saw this strange sight. The sun above was surrounded in a rainbow halo, which neither of us had ever seen.

This big draw of the hike is that afterwards you can soak in the natural soda spring spa at the base of the mountain. You get your own private tub of hot soda spring water, which is one of the few in the world. It was extremely relaxing, especially after such a strenuous hike. We were instructed not to take a shower afterwards to get the full benefit of the minerals left on your skin.