New Zealand’s best spa with a view
Once you get in these hot tubs, you will not want to leave.
For many people a trip to Queenstown conjures thoughts of high-adrenaline sports, from heli-skiing and bungee jumping to skydiving and canyon swinging.
It’s a different sort of activity on my mind as I stand in my swimmers on a hilltop outside New Zealand’s adventure capital, shivering slightly in the cool morning air.
While jet boats skim around a bend in the Shotover River below, I take a deep breath and lower my body into a long cedar tub to commence a pursuit that’s much more my pace – the ancient art of bathing.
I’m doing a tandem soak with a friend, but there’s still plenty of room for us to stretch out across the tub and raise two glasses of sparkling wine to toast our indulgent morning at Onsen, a hot tub and day spa retreat at Arthurs Point, just north of Queenstown on New Zealand’s South Island.
In front of us, open bi-fold glass doors frame a superb view of the soaring face of Queenstown Hill (a mountain by Australian standards). On either side of the summit, low white clouds cling like fairy floss to the jagged tops of The Remarkables range and Cecil Peak.
It’s a majestic outlook shared by all the hot tubs at Onsen, where visitors are promised a “Kiwi twist” on the traditional Japanese bathing experience.
Opened in 2007 and expanded in 2019, Onsen offers 17 exclusive-use open air cedar hot tubs along the edge of a pavilion, separated by screens or walls.
The selection includes nine round tubs with retractable glass roofs and five under canopies, each for up to four people, as well as three oval tubs for one or two bathers.
Instead of the natural hot spring waters found in Japanese onsens, the Queenstown tubs are filled with pure water drawn from the mountains, heated to about 38.5C and treated as required. And while clothing is taboo in Japanese onsens, swimming costumes are compulsory at the Queenstown iteration.
We’ve booked a Serenity Soak and Spa package with a 45-minute session in an oval hot tub and a one-hour massage, so on arrival we are ushered to a separate spa reception where we consider a list of complimentary drinks and snacks to enjoy with our immersion.
Hard decisions made (sparkling wine and chips), we’re allocated a locker in a change room, and don soft robes before padding upstairs to our sanctuary, where stacking glass doors and a glass balustrade create a setting akin to a private verandah.
Bath scents are ceremoniously added to the water before our attendant retreats and we slip into the tub’s bubbling warmth.
Novices may think all hot tubs are the same, but in our open-air eyrie watching the river far below, we feel we’ve reached new heights in our preferred pastime. When the water slowly begins to drain it’s a signal that our time is up.
Feeling somewhat euphoric, we glide along a corridor to a darkened treatment room for a massage. Surrounded by candlelight and soporific music,
I surrender to the hands of masseuse Hazel, who moves hot stones across my body so deftly I lose sense of where the stones end and my skin begins.
Soaked and pummelled, we dress before settling into the spa lounge to enjoy raw treats and relaxing herbal teas, a fitting finale to a gentler style of Queenstown adventure.
In the know
Onsen is at Arthurs Point, a 10-minute drive from Queenstown. Open 9am to
11pm daily; bookings essential; from $NZ60 ($55) a person for four people sharing an outdoor onsen. A Serenity Soak & Spa package featuring a 45-minute oval tub soak and a one-hour hot stone massage costs $NZ290 a person.
Libby Moffet travelled at her own expense.