About | Hot and Cold
Bathe in a geothermally heated stream and find your perfect temp. Here you’ll find where two streams meet, one cold and the other geothermally heated. Move between the two to find the right temperature for you, from a cold flowing stream to a hot and steamy one. And it does get hot! Walk under the bridge and further upstream to see how hot you like it.
The locals call it ‘the bridge’ or ‘the secret spot’. It can get busy but there’s a fair amount of room and all of the people that I’ve come across have been a friendly bunch.
It’s a great non-commercial setting that’s natural and surrounded by ferns and native bush and one of our favourites!
Cost: completely free.
Caution: keep your head above water to protect yourself from amoebic meningitis.
Complaints: Some don’t like the dirt or the smell. It isn’t for everyone. Others leave their rubbish for others to find, broken bottles, too. Sometimes you just don’t know what you’re going to get with these sorts of non-commercial places and that leads me onto my next point…
Take rubbish with you: In the last few years, this place hasn’t been treated the way it should be treated. Please take your rubbish with you. Be a tidy kiwi and leave the place better than you found it.
Toilets/changing rooms: There are no toilets or changing rooms here. Come already suited, find somewhere to change on the way or use a towel for privacy and get changed in the car.
How busy is it: This place is relatively unknown and at times you won’t find many others, if any, here. Other times it seems like everyone got the same idea and all came at the same time.
Parking: there is limited parking on either side of the bridge so it can fill up fast. Come early and enjoy this little gem by yourself. If it’s fill, find parking further up and walk to the destination.
How to get there: Located along the Waiotapu Loop Road, just 300 meters away from the Wai-O-Tapu Centre. When you see the bridge, park on either side of it. Find steps leading down to the stream on both sides, the colder side might be a better place to start off on.
Nearby
Kerosene Creek
Rainbow Mountain Scenic Reserve
Waimangu Volcanic Valley
Location
Photos
We’ve been to Hot’ n’ Cold and we’ll return again and again. It’s just one of those spots for us. The kids always have the best fun at these places and they love the natural setting. They find and play with the rocks, let the cold river slowly push them down with the current, play games with bits of wood, leaves and rocks and challenge themselves in how far they’re willing to go into the hot geothermal stream. It’s endless fun and a favoured spot for them. When they think of Rotorua, they think of this.
Venturing up the hot stream, we see how far we can get. It was super hot on the feet and took a while getting used to but once they were, it was easy to relax into.
