What to do in Taupō: hot pools, freak shakes and raw prawns 25 Feb, 2021 05:23 PM 5 minutes to read NZ Herald By: Eleanor Hughes Immersion into the top pool, surrounded by rocks, at Wairākei Terraces Thermal Pools is slow — the temperature is like a hot tap has been left on too long and cold needs adding. But after biking 31km on one of Taupō's Great Lake Trails, once I'm in, it's bliss. I sit on a ledge, most of me out of the water, watching steaming water spill over white silica terraces above the powder blue pool. Manicured native gardens surround three pools where maybe 10 other people soak. I'm soon too hot and move down a level. It's too cool. The bottom pool is perfect. Steam rises where a waterfall tumbles over boulders hitting the surface like rain pelting a footpath. A dragonfly helicopter-hovers, fantails dart in the bush. Aches and pains melt away in the nearly two hours I soak; I only get out because if I don't, I'll fall asleep.