There’s no better place to be this winter than the newly-opened He Puna Taimoana hot salt water pools in New Brighton, where you can relax in open-air hot salt water baths while looking out over the beach and pier.

The complex features five hot pools ranging from a muscle-relaxing 39 degrees down to the 36-degree family pool and a 28-degree pool for those who want to get active. There’s a refreshingly-chilly plunge pool that fluctuates between 10 and 14 degrees, a steam room and a sauna where you can enjoy the heat while watching the waves break on the beach. He Puna Taimoana has a great range of accessible features, with ramp access into the active fitness pool and hoists for the four other hot pools. Handrails have been installed to support entry in every pool, and there are accessible changing rooms and toilets. Also in the complex is a gorgeous café called Saturdays.

The newly-opened pools are proving popular with locals and visitors alike. After opening on May 30, He Puna Taimoana had a sell-out first month, a booming school holidays, and it’s still full at all its most popular times. Each day is divided into four sessions, each lasting an hour and 45 minutes, only $18 for an adult, with discounts for Christchurch residents. If you’ve got a seriously big party coming up, you can hire the pools out after hours for 50 to 100 people.

The Christchurch City Council thought through He Puna Taimoana’s environmental impact carefully; the pools are heated geothermally using ground-sourced heat pump technology, a system that emits less carbon dioxide than other common methods of heating pools, lowering operating costs and reducing the pools’ carbon footprint.

He Puna Taimoana continues a long New Brighton tradition. The original “Howey’s Hydro Baths” were located just across the road from the new hot pools, and the users in the early 1900s claimed the baths cured them of sciatica, rheumatism and other ailments. Many now believe that salt water is associated with calming the nervous system, boosting circulation, easing muscle and joint inflammation and reducing general pain, and there’s no debating the happiness benefits of a warm soak under the stars on a chilly winter’s night.

hepunataimoana.co.nz