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Published: February 14th 2008
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Sunset
OK, so this was taken from home rather than at Ngawha, but it is pretty neat! Ngawha Springs - somewhere we'd been intending to go for a while, but never quite getting around to it. We'd heard various stories about the pools and the area. So Saturday morning after work we packed up the kombi and trundled off northwards. We took a few back roads, ones we'd not driven yet, and possibly wont drive again. Sure, usually we love taking the back roads, the roads less travelled, but ... these just got a bit boring and monotonous. No-where to pull off and let the dogs have a run or a swim, it was just forest and houses, and not nice houses at that. The only excitement was meeting a farmer herding his cows up the road, and his dog was more interested in barking at the van - and the dogs in the van - than herding the cattle, causing a few minutes of chaos. You know, we couldnt get past the milling cows, and they wouldnt stop milling as there was a dog barking at the van, and the dog wouldnt stop barking while we were there, and we couldnt get past...
But finally we got to Ginn's Ngawha Spa. Makes it sound posh! But
it is really pretty run down. Perhaps rustic is a better term, doesnt sound so bad. And it really wasnt so bad. There was only two other people there, two old guys in a little campervan each. We parked up on the big grassy area in front of Lake Tuwhakino, and let the dogs out to play with the three already staying there. They were happy! So off we went to “take the waters”.
A bit of background, courtesy of the Springs flyer. The springs were well known in pre-European times but the Maori who used them to soak their battle wounds. In the early 1920's the Americans mined for cinnabar (mercury ore) in Spain, but they pushed their prices up, and the American came to Kaikohe.
Spain soon dropped their prices and the Americans pulled out of mining in NZ. In 1928 the Kaikohe Development Company purchased the mine and continued to mine for cinnabar ore until 1933 when the mine was closed down. The old hotel complex by the lake was the original miners quarters., they were moved to their present location in 1955. From 1960 to 1979 the hotel was catering for up to 120
guests per night.
The pools - eight different hot pools. They are close together but all different, varying in colour, temperature and mineral content. The pools are surrounded by “rustic” wooden boxing. They arent very deep - mid thigh to waist deep mainly, and the bottom is a mix of sand and mud, great when it oozes between your toes! The vents for the springs come up from the Tuwhakino plates right into the pools - be careful you dont sit on a vent! Some of the pools bubble gently, some are silky (slimy) on your skin, but they all leave you smelling sulphurous.
So we soaked, lounged by the lake, had dinner, soaked some more... a very relaxing night away.
The next morning, after some more soaking (!), we headed off to
Waimate North and the mission house.
The mission house is the last remnant and the first English farm village in NZ. The mission house is meant to be the second oldest building in NZ. It was originally built in 1831 for a lay missionary called George Clarke. The settlement contained three mission houses, a large church, blacksmiths, carpenters, printery, watermill, brickyards, schools, barns,
stables, sheds, cottages, vege and flower gardens...get the idea, an English country village.
Theres a lot of history to the mission house, with its various occupants. I had a wander round, but theres not a lot to it. A “lounge” with period furniture, a dining room, kitchen, a couple of bedrooms and the den. Plus a cellar and two rooms in the roof. I was nice walking round though, but not particularly stunning. The run down hot pools were much better!
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