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Home >> Hot Pools >> Te Rata Bay (Hot Water Beach)
 Te Rata Bay (Hot Water Beach)
Rotorua Region
Lake Tarawera
Lake Tarawera
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Description Situated in the western corner of Lake Tarawera. The hot spring trickles down a small stream and into the lake. As you can see in the picture, you may need to work at collecting large rocks and place them in a circle to keep the hot water in. Rather labour intensive and the sandflies are very annoying! Easiest access is by boat - just look for the steam!
Only practical access is by boat from landing place, or catch the tourist ferry, head straight out then when you see Mt Tarawera in front of you go right to as far as you can go, its on the right hand side, has camping there as well at the doc camp, can also walk up to Mt Tarawera if your fit, good clean water for swimming and very hot water near the cliffs, very nice place. [Bill Cox, Rotorua]
Interactive Map
Map showing location of Te Rata Bay (Hot Water Beach).
Use the controls on the map to zoom in and out.
 My Experience
I've been here once, and that was enough. To get to this remote Lake Tarawera beach involved 30 minutes driving, 45 minutes off-roading (in a non-off-road-worthy car!) and another 45 minutes tramping! As shown in the 1st photo above we built a little ring of rocks to hold some of the hot water in, but for all the blinkin sandflies, driving, tramping and labour, it wasn't really worth it.
5 Bather Reviews Write Your Review Now
- we have been coming here for years now and absolutly love it. for us it is definatly our family holiday spot. we love jumoping off the rocks around in the next bay and sitting in the hot natural spa. an awesome spot to relax, wakeboard, ski, skurf and just swim. if your up for the challenge swim to the boy about 200m out. overall of the best places in new zealand!!!!
jaz reid - Te Puke
Rating: 10/10 15th May 2008
- pretty cool place, we had the place to ourselves, although if you head around the bays to the west of this beach there appears to be a larger ring of stones below the cliffs that is a natural spa bath [without the bubbles unless you amke your own]
another anon - sth island/new zealand
Rating: 7/10 19th March 2007
- We have been going to Lake Tarawera for holidays for more than 10 years. We are waterskiers so for us one of the highlights is a soak in warm/hot water after a days skiing to soothe the worn out bodies.
Ann - Wellington NZ
Rating: 10/10 23rd March 2006
- We are so lucky to have a place to warm up after a hard day tramping so its not a spa pool it is nature at its best
Sean
Rating: 5/10 11th August 2005
- Hot water can be found along most of the beach. Stand at water level, wriggle your feet and If not careful, burnt feet can result.
At the western end of the beach, hot water is present from depth, not just the stream. Its a matter of finding the interface between hot and cold sections for bathing. Unfortunately the interface can be quite sudden so it can be difficult to find comfort between the too hot and the too cold.
There is no road access, so is typically accessed by boat. The camping area there is administered by Dept of Conservation (I think) and is very popular during summer holidays.
anon
11th August 2005
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