Key points
About 80 percent of New Zealand’s geothermal resources are in the Waikato region. New Zealand’s geothermal features are major tourist attractions for both domestic and international visitors. Access to these areas needs to be managed carefully to protect the natural character of our geothermal attractions.
- Approximately 2 million people visit geothermal attractions in the Waikato Region each year.
- Sixty percent are from New Zealand (1.2 million) and 40 percent (800,000) are from overseas.
- Tourism in geothermal areas significantly contributes to our Regional economy.
- Most people visit geothermal areas to bathe in thermally heated pools.
- Other attractions include nature tourism, and technology-related sites such as the Prawn Park at Wairakei.
Source: Environment Waikato
What agencies are doing
- Environment Waikato monitors a range of geothermal features quarterly and annually to record their condition and any threats they face.
- We have classified our geothermal systems by their natural values. Classifying our geothermal systems helps us manage each system for development or protection.
- Both Environment Bay of Plenty and Environment Waikato now have rules protecting geothermal features, although many features had already been destroyed or adversely affected before the Resource Management Act 1991 and our Regional Policy Statement were put in place.
- Under the Proposed Waikato Regional Plan, users of the geothermal resource must avoid, remedy or mitigate any adverse effects of their activities on geothermal features, and must monitor the effects of their activities on geothermal resources.
What you can do to help
- If you use geothermal water for heating or a domestic swimming pool, make sure that you are using it efficiently and not wasting it.
- Look after our geothermal areas. Don’t throw rubbish into a geothermal feature. Don’t trample surface features, such as crystallised structures. Don’t remove vegetation from around geothermal features. Don’t change the appearance, structure or function of any geothermal feature.
- Geothermal areas contain boiling mud pools and geysers, hot streams, unstable ground, and many sinter and rock formations which may be jagged or fragile. Keep a watchful eye on yourself and others in your visiting party, and make sure young children are not left unsupervised.
More information
More detail on this indicator, including how and where this information is collected, is available here.
What we want to achieve
The community outcomes we are seeking to achieve by monitoring visitor numbers to geothermal areas are:
- The iconic landscapes and natural features of our environment define and sustain us. We respect and celebrate them as taonga.
- Our natural environment is protected and respected. Its ecological balance is restored, its air, soil and water quality is improved and its native biodiversity is enhanced.
- The traditional role of iwi and hapu as kaitiaki is acknowledged, respected and enabled.
- Our region’s waterways have consistently high water quality.