Otehake River

The Otehake Hot Springs are a remote natural geothermal spring site accessible via a challenging backcountry tramping route in Arthur's Pass National Park on New Zealand's South Island, where sulfurous geothermal waters emerge beside the wild Otehake River in deep native beech forest wilderness, reached after a demanding river crossing and multi-hour track through some of the South Island's most rugged and pristine alpine terrain. The springs, rarely visited due to their remote location requiring river fords that are only safely passable in low-flow conditions, represent the most demanding and correspondingly rewarding natural thermal experience available in the South Island's predominantly volcanic-spring-free Southern Alps. The experience of reaching and soaking in the Otehake springs in their wild West Coast beech forest setting — with the sounds of the forest and river as the only accompaniment — is among the purest wilderness thermal experiences available in the entire Pacific region.