Walking through the Te Aroha Domain in mid November you may have noticed soil samples being taken in various spots, using a hand auger. An auger is like a manual drill and taking samples by hand meant there was little impact on the maunga (Mount Te Aroha) and the vegetation. Ngāti Tumutumu was involved in the planning before work started, and led the karakia and cultural induction.

The soil samples will tell us how stable the ground is and this information will help decide where a new spa for Te Aroha could be located.

Land stability and having enough geothermal water to support a larger spa operation are two critical risks for the project. Once these risks have been analysed and the Project Governance Group is confident they can be managed, the focus for 2022 will be to progress the concept for a spa and develop concept designs.

For more information on the new spa project click here