Tekapo hot springs question?

[MD]

So I'm about to do my annual South Island pilgrimage and each year I mean to drag the team to these hot pools near Tekapo, that I've heard comments about on here over the years.

I just want to clarify, are you all talking about the Tekapo Springs, 6 Lakeside Drive that have concrete pools shaped like the local lakes. Or is there another mob operating somewhere in that Mt John/Mt Cook region? I had images of wooden hot tubs and booze but the Tekapo Springs looks more a family day out place (as opposed to a pub!)

If it is Tekapo then I suppose we need to find accommodation in that overpriced tourist trap of a township. We often stay at the Geraldine pub or a Wanaka Motel when in that area. Cheap and nasty but hey we're on bikes, not Rollers.

2nd question. Do you just walk up from the Springs to the Observatory? Or is this a no no, you take the long road around the hill.

[neels]

There is the hot spring park at Tekapo which is as you have described, and unless you can get something at the motor camp accommodation is a bit pricey.

There is a wooden hot tub place at Omarama which may be more what you are looking for, not sure how the accommodation compares

http://www.hottubsomarama.co.nz/

There is a walking track from the township to the observatory.

[MD]

Cheers for that information neels. That's what had confused me. I'd seen pics some years ago of people sitting in wooden tubs and now I know it's Omarama for the tubs, Tekapo for the pools. Both close to each other. Maybe this year we do one or the other. Done the Maruia and Hanmer Springs many times.

[Hobbyhorse]

I stayed in the Omarama pub last year on the way down to the Burt. From memory, $50 bed and breakfast with a huge breakfast provided ... all good.