Meet the Peninsula Hot Springsr sister springs in New Zealand

Maruia Hot Springs

Peninsula Hot Springs are delighted to introduce their sister springs, Maruia Hot Springs, which is located on the South Island of New Zealand. The springs are set among a spectacular mountain environment on the Lewis Pass, which has the largest flow rate natural hot springs in the South Island at 56C from deep underground.

Peninsula Hot Springs, a co-investor, is supporting Maruia Hot Springs by sharing knowledge and extensive experience. For 10 years Peninsula Hot Springs has operated a facility that is in harmony with the natural environment, employs 240 staff and receives 440,000+ annual visitors to the Mornington Peninsula. Peninsula Hot Springs has won numerous Australian and international awards and plans to help drive Australian wellness tourism visitors to the South Island of New Zealand.

Maruia Hot Springs has been operating since the early 1900’s; in December 2015 New Zealand and Australian partners, including Peninsula Hot Springs, purchased Maruia Hot Springs with the aim of creating a ‘Pure New Zealand’ hot springs offering. They plan to honour the history and accept the responsibility of custodianship of this very special part of the world.

Tourism New Zealand has welcomed the new Maruia Hot Springs owners’ pledge to rejuvenate the historic Southern Alps destination and align with the Pure New Zealand campaign, driving more east coast Australians to the natural South Island attraction.

James White, Managing Director, and partner Kim Hamilton are South Islanders with a connection to the Lewis Pass that goes back to James’ family holidays as a child. The couple is excited by “extensive revitalising and expansion of the open air hot pools that will help Maruia Hot Springs become the blissful New Zealand nature escape that it should be, one which embraces traditional and contemporary hot spring features”.

The new owners are set to undertake major redevelopment works, promising a “total renewal of the Southern Alps bathing experience which fit harmoniously into the surrounding mountains and a world class bathing and wellbeing attraction” James explained. Tourism New Zealand said the Lewis Pass revival was “an exciting opportunity” for

New Zealand, particularly Canterbury, to further tap into the burgeoning global health and wellness tourism market.

The couple has already been hard at work rejuvenating what was a Japanese-style bath house into two communal indoor bathing experiences, which provide couples and families with sweeping views of the river valley and mountains. Other upgrades included revitalising the café, painting buildings, extensive tidying of the grounds, a new website to allow customers to conveniently book online as well as employing local staff members. Other eco-resort facilities which will be developed shortly include thermal massaging showers, heated stone beds, new change facilities, blissful relaxation lounges, a sauna, steam room and more indoor relaxation experiences.

General Manager Australia at Tourism New Zealand, Tony Saunders said, “It’s great to see another option for geothermal hot springs in the Canterbury Region. We know that Australian visitors find hot springs appealing and adding an alpine element makes it a very unique experience. Given the growing trend towards relaxing and rejuvenating holidays, we’d expect participation in this experience to be high.”

“Since taking over this remote mountain property just before Christmas we have experienced firsthand the extra challenges of being a true eco resort, which generates its electricity from its own hydro power station where water is sourced from a natural springs high above the property, which also supplies our accommodation, restaurant and café,” said James. “The outdoor and indoor bathing pools are fed from a natural 56C mineral spring from across the river where over 300,000 litres of water flows through daily.”

Peninsula Hot Springs founder and CEO Charles Davidson sits on the board of the Australasian Spa and Wellness Association with James, both have travelled extensively together gleaning ideas and inspiration from geothermal springs across the globe which will ultimately assist when creating new experience at Maruia Hot Springs.

To find out more about the facility and book your bathing experience at Maruia Hot Springs visit their new website: www.maruiasprings.co.nz. You can also follow Maruia Hot Springs on Facebook and Instagram to keep up to date with the exciting changes ahead.