Hot springs here

As life-enriching goals go, here’s a fun one: visiting every hot spring in the country. Hot spring enthusiast Sally Jackson makes this quest easier with her book Hot Springs of New Zealand (Hot Water Publishing), now in its fourth edition. The guide includes more than 100 thermal springs, plus directions. Jackson features on the cover of her book, luxuriating in one of her favourite natural hot springs – Welcome Flat hot pools in South Westland. “The bliss of being enveloped in thermal water, along with the therapeutic benefits – the heat, minerals and buoyancy – are why people have sought relief in hot springs for thousands of years,” she says.