Our own motel had a mineral pool, of course, which we decided to try out one evening. I’m not entirely certain if my intestines were completely poached by the end of our brief dip, the arteries in my legs certainly were. Glen managed to submerge himself up to his neck in the scalding water, while I only managed to get in up to my waist. It took us about ten minutes of ginger, inch-by-painful-inch entry to get to that point. I believe that the water was around 43 degrees Celsius, and our skin was a blotchy lobster-red for a good hour after we got out.
A much more gentle experience was had at the Wai Ora Spa at the Hell’s Gate Geothermal Reserve. We were signed up for a combo package, which included our entry fee to the geothermal reserve park, a private mud bath, and a soak in the spa’s sulphur pools. I would like to add that the park has a complimentary shuttle bus for visitors. It might be wonderful to have our own car again, but it is delightful to have someone else do the driving and thinking for us.
The walk was defiantly nifty; despite having seen natural hot spring sources before, the violence with which the mud and water bubbles up from this area is surprising. The smell is sometimes eye-wateringly pungent, but after a while one’s nose deadens somewhat at it becomes more bearable. All cliches aside, 'alien' would be the best way to describe the landscape, as it is a blasted, pitted place marked with pools of black mud that says "gloop gloop" and shockingly yellow sulphur crystal formations.
The spa was delightful. The properties of the hot springs create marvelously silky mud that is excellent for one’s pores. Both the spa’s mud and sulphur baths are sourced directly from the geothermal reserve, so it’s a thoroughly local indulgence. All snooty expounding upon the curative properties of the mud aside, it was darn fun to wallow in it and get completely filthy.
After we rinsed off (in a freezing cold shower, I might add: the water came straight out of a garden hose set-up and promoted severe testicular retraction) we went to the sulphur baths. The water was smelly but extremely soft. Happily, the temperature of those baths weren’t nearly as hot as the mineral pool at our hotel, so we were able to get in up to our necks quite quickly. I’ve begun to wonder, however, if the pools were designed to extract human energy and use it to power the facility; we were completely drained after getting out of the sulphur pools. A word to the wise traveller: don’t make any plans for the evening following a day at Hell’s Gate/Wai Ora. You will be useless for any activity apart from blobbing in front of the television and occasionally drooling.
No comments:
Post a Comment