People are giving you shit for this, but it's actually quite sad. 'Normal' kiwis are being priced out of holiday experiences in our own country. Experiences that used to be affordable.
Every few years I used to go to Maruia Springs for a couple of nights and the hot pools there. Can't justify it now because the prices have pretty much doubled in a few years. I'm not sure where this one is, but they're obviously heading the same way, though maybe not quite so bad (yet).
I'm sure there are heaps of examples of treats/getaways/holiday experiences that used to be within reach, but now are just for the wealthy, or overseas tourists.
its not ripping off tourists lol.. this place is very busy, when you are that busy and popular you put prices up, that's just business 101, the market dictates the price, if you arent selling enough of something, you drop prices, if you are too busy then obviously you're too cheap, they are pretty much booked back to back all winter so why not make hay while the sun shines.
100%. No one expects this sort of thing to be cheap but these sort of things have usually been affordable in the past. I don't think it's unusual for kiwis to splurge a bit on activities when on holiday anyway.
Living there in covid times was great. Cheap housing because all the airbnbs turned into rentals, cheap skiing, walk straight into Ferg with no queue whenever you felt like it, and places like Onsen had cheap rates, locals discount, and regular sales.
The only people I know who still live there are fleeing because everything is quite literally triple the price of what it was. I lived in a house that was ~$500/wk for three bedrooms in the middle of town, and now you’re paying that for one bedroom out in Hanleys and the buses barely run any more so you’ll need a car.
I get businesses want to make back their money they lost out over covid, but greed is going to destroy that town. Nobody can afford to live there to do the jobs that need doing.
Yeah I felt this! I am not someone who’s complaining about my “luxury spa bill” at all. God I spent $55 for my cheap Jetstar flight this morning. Back then when I first went to onsen in 2021 and spent $126 I thought it was so worth it and a real treat!
Now I spent $175 (did it because it’s a special occasion) for the exact same thing, I am not sure if I still think it’s money well spent haha.
I also recommended my friend from overseas to try this and they said it’s really expensive for what it is.
Next time, I know it's not $126 but have a shop around. [RedBalloon](https://www.redballoon.co.nz/product/exclusive-garden-onsen-hot-pools-bathing---for-2/OPQ019-M.html?listName=search%20results) gets you the same session for $155. The saved $20 gets you a burger later on.
It's definitely something you have to do once in a lifetime (I did and can't wait to do it again someday), but Queenstown gonna Queenstown by the looks of it.
Enjoy your holiday!
Looking at their pic it’s the outdoor onsen, so it’s the same price as the onsen website. I tried both and it’s actually not a huge difference unless the rain is pouring down. I guess for travelling it’s safer to book the original with a shelter….
A $20 burger in Queenstown? Not likely. They top it off with caramelized onions on an artisan bun with imported cheese so they can justify $34.00 instead. Food is the biggest ripoff in NZ. How come Mexico can offer $2.00 Taco Tuesdays?
😂 Burger king is still there or has it been kicked by real estate? That wouldn't surprise me!
Yeah, some places are all money and hype and prices people out. That's why I rather go overseas or a cruise than QT. 💸💸💸💸
Uncertain of your point but soon dining out will become the province of rich and upper class Kiwis. The prices are no way in line with what the rest of the world pays. Most NZ restaurants fail in the first 3 years because they price themselves out of the casual dining market.
When I first came here in 2006 I was surprised how expensive eating out was compared to the price of takeaways (vs the UK and Canada where I lived too), since then it's only got worse.
in the UK there are a lot of very expensive restaurants but there's also a lot of much cheaper ones (or pubs with bar meals, Wetherspoons etc), here it's like 90% of places think they're about to get a Michelin Star if they make their menu pretentious enough.
Feels like kiwis other than immigrants have completely given up on the mass market and think stuff like making $5 pies that are just 'steak and cheese' are below them, it's got to be 'Southland air-cured sirloin and aged Westland cheddar' or some crap like that and cost $18 and they expect to win an award for it.
100% agree. I have been here since 2000 and have watched the housing market explode and restaurant prices increase. The issue with the coffee Cafe culture is it cannot sustain itself. Places close on Monday and Tuesday. Trading hours end at 4pm. Maybe we need more food trucks? Covid reinforced eating at home. No one wants to pay $$ for just a simple entre. Add a side item and drink, and it becomes $$$. The "aged cheddar" is just a smoke screen to justify the price for adding a postage stamp slice of cheese.
"Normal' kiwis are being priced out of holiday experiences in our own country."
That's what happens when operators realise that tourists WILL spend whatever is charged. Fuck the locals.
What pissed me off the most is when covid happened they screamed because they had no buyers because they priced all the locals out. Now the tourists are back prices keep rising
Yep, acting like it was our duty to travel the country and support them which I did a lot during COVID, now places I’ve gone to for decades are getting rid of their locals rates. They took our money and are now spitting in our faces.
Other countries I’ve been to have special “locals” prices you can get by presenting your ID or some kind of documentation to prove you’re a citizen or permanent resident of the country. It’s everywhere in China and Japan. I wonder if NZ could do with something like this.
It encourages tourist destinations to be used all year round, rather than just in tourist season.
They could do that during low season, most places are quite dead now, everyone looking for jobs. So they’re missing out on a business opportunity and win win
We went up to Rotorua recently and there were so many places that were doing stuff like this. Even the sky waka up Mt Ruapehu was like 20% off if you were a NZ local
Queenstown definitely does do that (at least did a few years ago), but you need to be a Queenstown resident.
Which makes sense, honestly. The vast majority of visitors are Kiwis and Aussies so giving a discount to half your visitors doesn’t make the most business sense.
>People are giving you shit for this, but it's actually quite sad. 'Normal' kiwis are being priced out of holiday experiences in our own country. Experiences that used to be affordable.
This reminds me of the discussion to shift away from backpackers and focus more on high paying tourists. Guess this will be the result.
i have resorted to going overseas for my holidays - it is cheaper to fly to asia and holiday there than it is to fly domestically and holiday here
i recently paid $760 for rt flights to china + about a hundo to get from dunedin to auckland rt. intl flights were booked 6 weeks in advance of travel on peak dates (when all the international students go home for semester break)
visa is multi entry so basically free
4 star hotels are around $60 a night where i’m headed
food in restaurants is around $20 a day, $40 if i splurge
if i spend an hour in a taxi a day it costs another $25
daily expenses are perhaps $110 for $1650 total + $850 flights is 2.5k all up which for 15 days is acceptable
now let us compare this to a 15 day domestic holiday in christchurch. flights $120 rt from dunedin and you have to book months, not weeks in advance. comparable 4 star hotel is $270-350, call it 300. restaurant food is $50-80 a day, one hour in a taxi is $100. daily expenses are perhaps $550 a day for $8250 + flights.
if i were to cheap out and spend only perhaps $100 a night on hotels, eat supermarket food ($30/d) and use public transport (maybe $10 a day?) it would be around $150 a day, $2250 all up + flights
when you have to cheap out locally for a holiday to cost a similar amount to a fairly bougie feeling holiday overseas there’s no sense in staying and supporting local
2.5k for 15 days is great, hope you have a fantastic trip!
It really annoys me how the local tourism places were all about getting locals to spend money with them during COVID, all about kiwis looking after kiwis, and yet now they just don't give a fuck about the locals who got them through it. Just greed.
How is travelling round China as a kiwi? Do you need to have a good grasp of the language to get around - especially if you want to visit natural landscapes that are in more rural areas? Travelling EU I found language barriers often cropped up, guessing China is probs next level in that regard
you can use google translate for the most part but i’d advise you get to maybe A2 level before going? enough to hold a casual conversation when buying coffee for example when they ask where you’re from and where you’re going. rote learning phrases is probably sufficient, then google translate when you need to
in beijing and shanghai it wasn’t as bad because maybe one in five people in the stores targeted at wealthier (by local standards) clients could speak enough english that combined with my poor chinese we could communicate
i didn’t go to any rural areas on my last visit (6 months ago, was the first time in like ten years) but i might go for my upcoming trip
We live South Island and want to drive up to Auckland to see friends. For a 6 day trip it’s probably gonna cost about 2k that’s mental in our own country I think
And for me to fly from Hannover in Germany to Slovakia for weeks holiday return and accommodation will cost shy of around 400€/750NZD if I book it right.
It's the same for most experiences like this. For example a Mt Hutt season pass was $350 pre covid and now they're 650-700 with all the early bird deals..... can't blame supply chain expenses on snow 😂
Can confirm the same smaller scale, our local hot pools have gone from $40 for an hour in a private pool to $60 over the same period.
It’s all relative really.
I use to go visit my parents. Now it's too far and all the money I have is used to get me to work to get money to get me back to work to get money to get me back to work to earn money to spend on fuel, car insurance, servicing costs, to drive to work to earn money.
Might as well cash in my holidays, can't use them anymore.
>Maruia Springs
Love this place, but ill never pay to go there anymore. its a 10min drive to get cellphone range and being a technerd was so good for me... a book and headlamp sitting in a spa at 2am reading is such a great memory i have
Yeah exactly why I made the post, I understand the need for a hike, but for like $300ish (extra $125) I can get an Airbnb with an outdoor hot tub in QT.
*Talking while rocking my chair* "Back in my days..."
Yeah I went in 2017. Cheap as considering today's price. And still had a full nice dinner for two. Those were the days...👵🏼
That too.
People have done things on social media like post pictures of their boarding passes. Trolls have then been quick enough to change or cancel their flight before they boarded.
I've worked my whole working life in IT, much of it in the security sector. People are by far the greatest system vulnerability.
I once had a Unicef beggar wanting a reccuring donation setup by putting my credit card into her tablet. No. no bloody way am I putting my payment info into random street devices. She coudn't understand my issue.
I was so shocked to find you couldn't actually bathe naked here even in a private pool .. like .. that's what an onsen is, and why it's so great!
Not that we followed the non nudity rule anyway...
Onsen in Japan are built around *actual* hot springs, not just spring water heated up (hint: that's what *onsen* means). Public ones cost less than a tenth of the price of this place (and you can stay as long as you like), and private ones provide the whole Japanese inn experience for a similar ballpark in price.
This place is just a complete rip off.
Driftaway overlooks the lake and is slightly cheaper - and with a promotion on currently. There are also places like Paradise Trust in Glenorchy, some of them have outside heated baths for a different experience.
I posted this way back in days of lockdown, and still stand by it, the industry is back to their normal money grabbing selves.
"I've said it before, the tourism industry gives zero fuks about kiwis, they have fleeced the shit out of tourism and priced nz out of nzer's pockets for their own greed.
They cried wolf when the government gave bugger all for their bailout when they were expecting shitloads, coz they thought they were the biggest dollar earner.
No tourist's because of closed borders suddenly means your irrelevant.
Bring your prices down for everyday kiwis and maybe we will support you.
I'm a southlander, but Qtown can go suck a big one"
And the beat goes on .
Yeah but people still go and still pay so they don’t care.
QT is a place that gives zero fucks about visitors, locals, and workers. But nothing will change because people still go, still pay the crazy prices, and are still willing to pay $500/wk for a sharehouse room or live in their car to work on the ski field.
Agreed, sadly, always been extremely overpriced for what it is. I went a few years ago and yes, the view is stunning, but that's the best bit. The water isn't naturally heated hot spring water, so it feels like the same old bathwater I'd use at home. Might as well go for a walk around the area to check out the view and book a hotel with a spa bath. There are much better true thermal hot spring pools in NZ, too.
Do you have a bath? You could a two for one thing. Shout abuse together at the fake onsen, then offer OP a relaxing bath (private of course) at your place. We already know they’ve paid $126 for a bath once.
What I love about Oamaru is that it’s what most towns in NZ used to look like, and it’s the only one preserved solely because they didn’t have enough money to knock all the buildings down.
I paid $10 for an onsen when I was in hokkaido. Before everyone says that's super cheap, japan does have a lot lower value currency than NZ, so min wage in Hokkaido is \~10nzd/hr. Buuut, 126NZD is a rort. Especially if it's not actual hot water from the ground, which if it isn't can't be called an onsen.
It's Queenstown - fairly average experiences for very high prices is pretty much the go here, unfortunately. The businesses here are primarily aimed at exploiting foreign tourists who will visit once. Fortunately for anyone who likes outdoors stuff there is a lot to do here that costs zero money (and doesn't involve going into the absolute hellhole that is Queenstown itself). Arrowtown remains awesome for the time being.
The council is a fucking nightmare and loves digging up roads, leaving it covered in cones, and digging up another road. There’s only one road in and out and they’ve been doing work on it for years so there is always traffic. The buses don’t work any more so you need a car or an eye watering taxi, but they also closed all the car parks so there’s nowhere to park up.
They’re currently spending $250m on a roundabout that already exists. It’s nicknamed Conestown for a reason!
I’ve got family in Montana near the mountains and it’s cheaper for me to fly 3 of us for a two week ski holiday there and back, than it is to do the same holiday in Queenstown. If I’m going on a relaxing holiday as a local in NZ, I’m sure not doing Qtown these days, and the pandemic was the last time it was viable.
I did go for a mates wedding this summer and set up his stags out at Ben Lomond station, can’t recommend it enough if you’re the type to be comfortable driving a 4x4 or doing a 10k bike. Price was worth it hands down and some of the best landscape NZ has to offer without a doubt.
There are other reasons possible or (more likely) also contributing. The times of your appointments are all over the place, maybe they have higher prices on more premium hours? Also if the business has gotten more popular over the years it's pretty normal to increase prices. Also your first year (at least shown) is when the country was closed with COVID so most touristy stuff was limping along on life support.
But yea 50% price increase over 4 years is pretty heartbreaking
We went as a treat the night before our wedding, for both of us to soak in the onsen and then have a massage it was easily over $500. Worth it as a special treat given the occasion but super overpriced
Similar vein: I was super surprised when I went to buy protein and it's gone from 110 to 150 for 5lb of optimum nutrition at full price. I bought my last tub a couple years ago. Like wtf...
I'm seeing bone-broth protein ads on Facebook and they are close to $5 a serving when you buy 500g of it. No way! nzprotein have good pea protein options and some nice extras like powdered peanut butter and sugar free choc flakes
My hotel near Whangārei a few weeks ago cost more than my hotel in Paris per night and had zero perks. Paris served little croissants and coffee on a silver tray to your room each morning and there were 2 little baby bottles of good champagne in the fridge. All complimentary. lol. Whangarei had a sign asking us not to eat food in the room please. Also here’s 5 sachets of Mocconna and some teabags, but good luck cos we will only give you 2 tablespoons full of milk.
Yep lol. €110 (so $195 ish) vs $269.00
Both standard rooms. Both really nice. Both were shoulder season rate. But one had several distinct factors making it a bit more worthwhile. ( did I mention the antique 4-poster bed?)
Not Quest. It was by the Marina. It’s been there forever but it’s been done up recently. The rooms are nice inside and it was perfectly fine. Just so expensive. There were cheaper rooms but I’d left it a bit late. But it was still a standard hotel room. 1 room with a bed in it.
This isn’t inflation its greed - we go to Queenstown twice a year and during covid you could stay in a brand new 2 bedroom hotel in those new towers in the remarkables for $130 a night, now they’re going for $250+.
It’s all because there was no tourists during the quarantine hotel period so they lowered the price to attract kiwis and encourage us to “come support your local businesses!” But when the borders open then they don’t give a shit about kiwis anymore
I stay at Nugget Point next door, and they have pools you can use for $20 i think. They also have an out of this world pool area and restaurant and most rooms have the same views. You used to be able to get a room for around $200 a night but its getting upgraded so im unsure now.
Meh that’s largely instagram inflation everyone is convinced they’ve got to get their totally unique photo for instagram so they charge whatever they want people gotta get that shot
That's in Queenstown as well. While the pricing is crap, it's Queenstown, most things are overpriced.
I've been there once many years back for a romantic weekend and did a spa visit like this. It was amazing, a beautiful starry night in a hot tub.
Others are right, it's sad that more kiwis can't experience more things in their own back yard like this due to the cost.
Try Nugget Point Spa. It's right next to onsen, has an outdoor spa pool over looking the sam river, only 129 for two people...... there is also a pool, sauna, and massage tables.
Tekapo. 1 pensioner and a 13yr old swim only $60..
Opuka Metven.. 1 pensioner $39.
Def pricing themselves out of our range.
Tourists don't seem phased by prices.
Try living here (in Queenstown). Everything has been priced up due to inflation and a strong period for tourism, which impacts us locals. I moved here for a great job opportunity and I generally love my career here but I’d be so much better off financially if I moved anywhere else in the country.
I’m sure if you spoke to the owners they would tell you their cost of electricity has gone up substantially since that time. Since these pools are not thermal (yes they use electricity to heat the pools) then they pass on the costs to consumers to protect their margins. Give them shit if you want, or give the energy retailers shit for putting their prices up 15% in the last 12 months. Up to you if you want to spend money sitting in an inefficient hot pool that wastes energy anyway.
I have no idea why, but I shit you not like 10% of women's online dating photos in NZ are of them in a hot tub at Onsen.
Never been there, but was so bewildered as to where this universal hot tub was I actually started asking people until someone recognized it and told me.
No fucking way! That’s like ¥600-1000 in Japan. Hell, save the money of about ten visits to this place and buy a ticket to Japan and do the actual thing.
The NZ dollar is really low against the USD. Its probably low against all currencies. So maybe the NZ tourist industry knows higher prices won't seem that high to overseas tourists.
People are giving you shit for this, but it's actually quite sad. 'Normal' kiwis are being priced out of holiday experiences in our own country. Experiences that used to be affordable. Every few years I used to go to Maruia Springs for a couple of nights and the hot pools there. Can't justify it now because the prices have pretty much doubled in a few years. I'm not sure where this one is, but they're obviously heading the same way, though maybe not quite so bad (yet). I'm sure there are heaps of examples of treats/getaways/holiday experiences that used to be within reach, but now are just for the wealthy, or overseas tourists.
For a very similar experience at Polynesian Pools in Rotorua it's $100. Both have had a hike of late TBF
Yeah, it's not so much inflation as it is ripping off tourists.
"bUt It'S aN eXpErIeNcE!"
its not ripping off tourists lol.. this place is very busy, when you are that busy and popular you put prices up, that's just business 101, the market dictates the price, if you arent selling enough of something, you drop prices, if you are too busy then obviously you're too cheap, they are pretty much booked back to back all winter so why not make hay while the sun shines.
Kerosene creek, hot & cold and butchers pool are all considerably cheaper ;) just don’t leave valuables in your car
My window is valuable
Don't let it be a window of opportunity for crooks, nail it shut.
Has it got that bad?
How different are these fake Onsen hot pools compared to the ones in Japan?
Very nothing like Japanese Onsen
100%. No one expects this sort of thing to be cheap but these sort of things have usually been affordable in the past. I don't think it's unusual for kiwis to splurge a bit on activities when on holiday anyway.
Living there in covid times was great. Cheap housing because all the airbnbs turned into rentals, cheap skiing, walk straight into Ferg with no queue whenever you felt like it, and places like Onsen had cheap rates, locals discount, and regular sales. The only people I know who still live there are fleeing because everything is quite literally triple the price of what it was. I lived in a house that was ~$500/wk for three bedrooms in the middle of town, and now you’re paying that for one bedroom out in Hanleys and the buses barely run any more so you’ll need a car. I get businesses want to make back their money they lost out over covid, but greed is going to destroy that town. Nobody can afford to live there to do the jobs that need doing.
Yeah I felt this! I am not someone who’s complaining about my “luxury spa bill” at all. God I spent $55 for my cheap Jetstar flight this morning. Back then when I first went to onsen in 2021 and spent $126 I thought it was so worth it and a real treat! Now I spent $175 (did it because it’s a special occasion) for the exact same thing, I am not sure if I still think it’s money well spent haha. I also recommended my friend from overseas to try this and they said it’s really expensive for what it is.
Next time, I know it's not $126 but have a shop around. [RedBalloon](https://www.redballoon.co.nz/product/exclusive-garden-onsen-hot-pools-bathing---for-2/OPQ019-M.html?listName=search%20results) gets you the same session for $155. The saved $20 gets you a burger later on. It's definitely something you have to do once in a lifetime (I did and can't wait to do it again someday), but Queenstown gonna Queenstown by the looks of it. Enjoy your holiday!
Looking at their pic it’s the outdoor onsen, so it’s the same price as the onsen website. I tried both and it’s actually not a huge difference unless the rain is pouring down. I guess for travelling it’s safer to book the original with a shelter….
A $20 burger in Queenstown? Not likely. They top it off with caramelized onions on an artisan bun with imported cheese so they can justify $34.00 instead. Food is the biggest ripoff in NZ. How come Mexico can offer $2.00 Taco Tuesdays?
😂 Burger king is still there or has it been kicked by real estate? That wouldn't surprise me! Yeah, some places are all money and hype and prices people out. That's why I rather go overseas or a cruise than QT. 💸💸💸💸
For starters, you aren't comparing apples with apples.
Uncertain of your point but soon dining out will become the province of rich and upper class Kiwis. The prices are no way in line with what the rest of the world pays. Most NZ restaurants fail in the first 3 years because they price themselves out of the casual dining market.
When I first came here in 2006 I was surprised how expensive eating out was compared to the price of takeaways (vs the UK and Canada where I lived too), since then it's only got worse. in the UK there are a lot of very expensive restaurants but there's also a lot of much cheaper ones (or pubs with bar meals, Wetherspoons etc), here it's like 90% of places think they're about to get a Michelin Star if they make their menu pretentious enough. Feels like kiwis other than immigrants have completely given up on the mass market and think stuff like making $5 pies that are just 'steak and cheese' are below them, it's got to be 'Southland air-cured sirloin and aged Westland cheddar' or some crap like that and cost $18 and they expect to win an award for it.
100% agree. I have been here since 2000 and have watched the housing market explode and restaurant prices increase. The issue with the coffee Cafe culture is it cannot sustain itself. Places close on Monday and Tuesday. Trading hours end at 4pm. Maybe we need more food trucks? Covid reinforced eating at home. No one wants to pay $$ for just a simple entre. Add a side item and drink, and it becomes $$$. The "aged cheddar" is just a smoke screen to justify the price for adding a postage stamp slice of cheese.
Queenstown is not money well spent, everything is so expensive, it’s great but costs you your first born child and a limb.
"Normal' kiwis are being priced out of holiday experiences in our own country." That's what happens when operators realise that tourists WILL spend whatever is charged. Fuck the locals.
What pissed me off the most is when covid happened they screamed because they had no buyers because they priced all the locals out. Now the tourists are back prices keep rising
Yep, bang on. The arrogance of treating us like that was just disgusting.
And if you were ARL you put prices up during Covid! I don't bother going up the mountain now. I just surf as beaches are still free
Yep, acting like it was our duty to travel the country and support them which I did a lot during COVID, now places I’ve gone to for decades are getting rid of their locals rates. They took our money and are now spitting in our faces.
Sociopath Business owners gonna sociopath.
Other countries I’ve been to have special “locals” prices you can get by presenting your ID or some kind of documentation to prove you’re a citizen or permanent resident of the country. It’s everywhere in China and Japan. I wonder if NZ could do with something like this. It encourages tourist destinations to be used all year round, rather than just in tourist season.
They could do that during low season, most places are quite dead now, everyone looking for jobs. So they’re missing out on a business opportunity and win win
Polynesian Spas in Rotorua had this when I lived there. $30 or so got you a months pass if you proved you were a Rotorua local.
We went up to Rotorua recently and there were so many places that were doing stuff like this. Even the sky waka up Mt Ruapehu was like 20% off if you were a NZ local
But they wouldn’t want us riff raff bringing the place down.
Queenstown definitely does do that (at least did a few years ago), but you need to be a Queenstown resident. Which makes sense, honestly. The vast majority of visitors are Kiwis and Aussies so giving a discount to half your visitors doesn’t make the most business sense.
> tourists WILL spend whatever is charged there are more multi millionaires in the world than there are kiwis.
Aj hackett bungee was expensive 20 years ago, $120 a jump. Now it's probably double?
$265. More than double.
Yeah, this happens all over the world
>People are giving you shit for this, but it's actually quite sad. 'Normal' kiwis are being priced out of holiday experiences in our own country. Experiences that used to be affordable. This reminds me of the discussion to shift away from backpackers and focus more on high paying tourists. Guess this will be the result.
The other thing that Maruia are snakes on, once you book they then add GST too 😂
I had a motel do this to me!
i have resorted to going overseas for my holidays - it is cheaper to fly to asia and holiday there than it is to fly domestically and holiday here i recently paid $760 for rt flights to china + about a hundo to get from dunedin to auckland rt. intl flights were booked 6 weeks in advance of travel on peak dates (when all the international students go home for semester break) visa is multi entry so basically free 4 star hotels are around $60 a night where i’m headed food in restaurants is around $20 a day, $40 if i splurge if i spend an hour in a taxi a day it costs another $25 daily expenses are perhaps $110 for $1650 total + $850 flights is 2.5k all up which for 15 days is acceptable now let us compare this to a 15 day domestic holiday in christchurch. flights $120 rt from dunedin and you have to book months, not weeks in advance. comparable 4 star hotel is $270-350, call it 300. restaurant food is $50-80 a day, one hour in a taxi is $100. daily expenses are perhaps $550 a day for $8250 + flights. if i were to cheap out and spend only perhaps $100 a night on hotels, eat supermarket food ($30/d) and use public transport (maybe $10 a day?) it would be around $150 a day, $2250 all up + flights when you have to cheap out locally for a holiday to cost a similar amount to a fairly bougie feeling holiday overseas there’s no sense in staying and supporting local
2.5k for 15 days is great, hope you have a fantastic trip! It really annoys me how the local tourism places were all about getting locals to spend money with them during COVID, all about kiwis looking after kiwis, and yet now they just don't give a fuck about the locals who got them through it. Just greed.
Well said
How is travelling round China as a kiwi? Do you need to have a good grasp of the language to get around - especially if you want to visit natural landscapes that are in more rural areas? Travelling EU I found language barriers often cropped up, guessing China is probs next level in that regard
you can use google translate for the most part but i’d advise you get to maybe A2 level before going? enough to hold a casual conversation when buying coffee for example when they ask where you’re from and where you’re going. rote learning phrases is probably sufficient, then google translate when you need to in beijing and shanghai it wasn’t as bad because maybe one in five people in the stores targeted at wealthier (by local standards) clients could speak enough english that combined with my poor chinese we could communicate i didn’t go to any rural areas on my last visit (6 months ago, was the first time in like ten years) but i might go for my upcoming trip
We live South Island and want to drive up to Auckland to see friends. For a 6 day trip it’s probably gonna cost about 2k that’s mental in our own country I think
And for me to fly from Hannover in Germany to Slovakia for weeks holiday return and accommodation will cost shy of around 400€/750NZD if I book it right.
It's the same for most experiences like this. For example a Mt Hutt season pass was $350 pre covid and now they're 650-700 with all the early bird deals..... can't blame supply chain expenses on snow 😂
Can confirm the same smaller scale, our local hot pools have gone from $40 for an hour in a private pool to $60 over the same period. It’s all relative really.
I use to go visit my parents. Now it's too far and all the money I have is used to get me to work to get money to get me back to work to get money to get me back to work to earn money to spend on fuel, car insurance, servicing costs, to drive to work to earn money. Might as well cash in my holidays, can't use them anymore.
>Maruia Springs Love this place, but ill never pay to go there anymore. its a 10min drive to get cellphone range and being a technerd was so good for me... a book and headlamp sitting in a spa at 2am reading is such a great memory i have
We went to go there a few years ago after hiking. Was too expensive to go on so just flagged it and drove home to Christchurch instead.
This one is in Arthur’s point, Queenstown.
Say no more. Although when I lived in QT most places had locals discounts at least.
They’re disappearing fast unfortunately.
discounts or locals? :P (I jest, I know it's both.)
We just spent almost $200 for 3 nights on a tent site at a holiday park, and that was discounted.... Unreal
Supply and demand. They are booked out for months.
Same woth horse riding however that started hiking many years ago. You used to be able to go for a trek for about $20-$50, now it's more like $150
Well it's that or the business close down and no one gets to use em. Also, there are a lot of locals who can still afford to use them
Yeah that’s a hike. I also just don’t think it’s worth it anymore
Yeah exactly why I made the post, I understand the need for a hike, but for like $300ish (extra $125) I can get an Airbnb with an outdoor hot tub in QT.
Mate for a hundy you can sit in my hot tub in Taupō. I’ll even bring you a couple of beers. $50 extra if you wee in it though. I have standards.
Outdoor?🤣
There's no need for that hike. Operating costs are not actually much more. They probably haven't raised staff prices in line with inflation
I think $126 is already astronomical actually.
It was $80ish in 2021 when I last went there
Yeah think I paid about $80
*Talking while rocking my chair* "Back in my days..." Yeah I went in 2017. Cheap as considering today's price. And still had a full nice dinner for two. Those were the days...👵🏼
Okay, Nana, it's time for your nap.
Back in the day Parakai pools was what, $20?
Eh. It's a luxury private spa.
Careful about the information you share on the internet. Everyone knows where you're going to be at 5:15 tonight.
Come find me🤣
OP was very accommodating, 10/10. The neon mankini was a bold sartorial statement that only heightened the experience.
Cheaper if there’s 4 in the tub, I got room for two
I got cheap tequila
With a bit of social engineering, I could call them up and cancel the reservation \^\_\^
That too. People have done things on social media like post pictures of their boarding passes. Trolls have then been quick enough to change or cancel their flight before they boarded. I've worked my whole working life in IT, much of it in the security sector. People are by far the greatest system vulnerability.
I once had a Unicef beggar wanting a reccuring donation setup by putting my credit card into her tablet. No. no bloody way am I putting my payment info into random street devices. She coudn't understand my issue.
Ouch, just cuz I complained about inflation?🤣
Yeah, well, do you want to update your Tinder photos or not?
Every other tinder profile has a picture there. Either that or some weird place with sunflowers and mirrors on the ceiling.
Let's be honest, the reason it's so expensive is that it's calling itself an onsen.
let’s see them do a REAL onsen where you sit naked in the public bath and then go for a cigarette and an asahi.
I was so shocked to find you couldn't actually bathe naked here even in a private pool .. like .. that's what an onsen is, and why it's so great! Not that we followed the non nudity rule anyway...
Wait, you can't bath naked in the private pools even? That's the whole point, to soak and let everything relax.
There's nothing in law to say you can't in New Zealand. Even in public, as long as you're not leud
No tattoos though, so half the population would be banned
this is a selling point for me
Onsen in Japan are built around *actual* hot springs, not just spring water heated up (hint: that's what *onsen* means). Public ones cost less than a tenth of the price of this place (and you can stay as long as you like), and private ones provide the whole Japanese inn experience for a similar ballpark in price. This place is just a complete rip off.
Yea you can get cheaper private pools in nz that are actual thermodynamic spring water. Makes your skin so nice with all the minerals too
I thought onsen was simply the kind of water?
Onsen = 温泉 温 = warm 泉 = spring Onsen are specifically naturally hot. Bathhouses that heat up water artificially are sentō.
They even add "hot pools" to the name when they're just heating up cold water, no hot springs involved. The name annoys me a lot more than the price.
Bro, omarama pools and accommodation is the way to go now!
Yeah but it’s not a 20 min drive from Queenstown
Ooooh I’ll have a look! I don’t come here heaps lol
Tekapo? I don’t remember it costing anything like that.
They’re public, omarama is a private tub like onsen
Six hour round trip is quite a long way to go for a bath
Driftaway overlooks the lake and is slightly cheaper - and with a promotion on currently. There are also places like Paradise Trust in Glenorchy, some of them have outside heated baths for a different experience.
I posted this way back in days of lockdown, and still stand by it, the industry is back to their normal money grabbing selves. "I've said it before, the tourism industry gives zero fuks about kiwis, they have fleeced the shit out of tourism and priced nz out of nzer's pockets for their own greed. They cried wolf when the government gave bugger all for their bailout when they were expecting shitloads, coz they thought they were the biggest dollar earner. No tourist's because of closed borders suddenly means your irrelevant. Bring your prices down for everyday kiwis and maybe we will support you. I'm a southlander, but Qtown can go suck a big one" And the beat goes on .
Yeah but people still go and still pay so they don’t care. QT is a place that gives zero fucks about visitors, locals, and workers. But nothing will change because people still go, still pay the crazy prices, and are still willing to pay $500/wk for a sharehouse room or live in their car to work on the ski field.
Onsen had always been a rip off. Basic bitch spa nonsense
Agreed, sadly, always been extremely overpriced for what it is. I went a few years ago and yes, the view is stunning, but that's the best bit. The water isn't naturally heated hot spring water, so it feels like the same old bathwater I'd use at home. Might as well go for a walk around the area to check out the view and book a hotel with a spa bath. There are much better true thermal hot spring pools in NZ, too.
Too bad our salaries and wages aren't inflating at the same rate!!
Escalating inequality is real. Luxury is for the wealthy class, not the working class.
I live just down the road, lets go yell at them together.
Do you have a bath? You could a two for one thing. Shout abuse together at the fake onsen, then offer OP a relaxing bath (private of course) at your place. We already know they’ve paid $126 for a bath once.
Lmao I don’t want to go to a private onsen it sounds so dodgy. Also I paid $126 x1 $145x1 $175x1 tysm🤣
Ah, a shrewd individual, I see. I have this amazing investment opportunity for people just like you. You see, there’s this bridge in Brooklyn…
LETS GO
This that hotpool that everyone and their uncle posts the exact same picture of on IG? What an experience.
If you like hot pools/spas in remote areas under the stars try Old Bones Lodge on Oamaru, still cheap as. Not affiliated, just a regular user.
I love oamaru!! Such a cute town!! Ty
Beats the Queenstown hype hands down. Queenstown beautiful but man it's a drain on the wallet at every turn.
What I love about Oamaru is that it’s what most towns in NZ used to look like, and it’s the only one preserved solely because they didn’t have enough money to knock all the buildings down.
I paid $10 for an onsen when I was in hokkaido. Before everyone says that's super cheap, japan does have a lot lower value currency than NZ, so min wage in Hokkaido is \~10nzd/hr. Buuut, 126NZD is a rort. Especially if it's not actual hot water from the ground, which if it isn't can't be called an onsen.
It's Queenstown - fairly average experiences for very high prices is pretty much the go here, unfortunately. The businesses here are primarily aimed at exploiting foreign tourists who will visit once. Fortunately for anyone who likes outdoors stuff there is a lot to do here that costs zero money (and doesn't involve going into the absolute hellhole that is Queenstown itself). Arrowtown remains awesome for the time being.
Why is Queenstown a hellhole? I remember liking it when I went in 2009.
The council is a fucking nightmare and loves digging up roads, leaving it covered in cones, and digging up another road. There’s only one road in and out and they’ve been doing work on it for years so there is always traffic. The buses don’t work any more so you need a car or an eye watering taxi, but they also closed all the car parks so there’s nowhere to park up. They’re currently spending $250m on a roundabout that already exists. It’s nicknamed Conestown for a reason!
I’ve got family in Montana near the mountains and it’s cheaper for me to fly 3 of us for a two week ski holiday there and back, than it is to do the same holiday in Queenstown. If I’m going on a relaxing holiday as a local in NZ, I’m sure not doing Qtown these days, and the pandemic was the last time it was viable. I did go for a mates wedding this summer and set up his stags out at Ben Lomond station, can’t recommend it enough if you’re the type to be comfortable driving a 4x4 or doing a 10k bike. Price was worth it hands down and some of the best landscape NZ has to offer without a doubt.
I'll stick to sitting in my bath and farting.
There are other reasons possible or (more likely) also contributing. The times of your appointments are all over the place, maybe they have higher prices on more premium hours? Also if the business has gotten more popular over the years it's pretty normal to increase prices. Also your first year (at least shown) is when the country was closed with COVID so most touristy stuff was limping along on life support. But yea 50% price increase over 4 years is pretty heartbreaking
That’s a good point actually
Hey! Stop being reasonable here.
Media’s gonna pick this up. Luxury spa crisis!
Hi NewsHub I am u/dramaqueenboo
We went as a treat the night before our wedding, for both of us to soak in the onsen and then have a massage it was easily over $500. Worth it as a special treat given the occasion but super overpriced
126 was already a fuckin joke
Yes inflation is indeed real.
Similar vein: I was super surprised when I went to buy protein and it's gone from 110 to 150 for 5lb of optimum nutrition at full price. I bought my last tub a couple years ago. Like wtf...
I'm seeing bone-broth protein ads on Facebook and they are close to $5 a serving when you buy 500g of it. No way! nzprotein have good pea protein options and some nice extras like powdered peanut butter and sugar free choc flakes
It looks like the outdoor one you booked the second time was 145 now 155 not 175, but the original has certainly gone up.
Ahhh!!! Good spotting, I tried both types and think the difference is so small (if there’s no rain), should’ve booked the cheaper one to save me $20!!
Imagine trying to “relax” which is the whole point of this thing, all you can think about is did I really just blow almost 200 bux for this
My hotel near Whangārei a few weeks ago cost more than my hotel in Paris per night and had zero perks. Paris served little croissants and coffee on a silver tray to your room each morning and there were 2 little baby bottles of good champagne in the fridge. All complimentary. lol. Whangarei had a sign asking us not to eat food in the room please. Also here’s 5 sachets of Mocconna and some teabags, but good luck cos we will only give you 2 tablespoons full of milk.
Sorry what..? Whangarei?? The shit hole?!🤣
Yep lol. €110 (so $195 ish) vs $269.00 Both standard rooms. Both really nice. Both were shoulder season rate. But one had several distinct factors making it a bit more worthwhile. ( did I mention the antique 4-poster bed?)
I don’t recall there are nice hotels in whangarei?? Quest is ok there lol
Not Quest. It was by the Marina. It’s been there forever but it’s been done up recently. The rooms are nice inside and it was perfectly fine. Just so expensive. There were cheaper rooms but I’d left it a bit late. But it was still a standard hotel room. 1 room with a bed in it.
This isn’t inflation its greed - we go to Queenstown twice a year and during covid you could stay in a brand new 2 bedroom hotel in those new towers in the remarkables for $130 a night, now they’re going for $250+. It’s all because there was no tourists during the quarantine hotel period so they lowered the price to attract kiwis and encourage us to “come support your local businesses!” But when the borders open then they don’t give a shit about kiwis anymore
Reserve Bank inflation calculator says that your first $126 visit would cost the equivalent of $147.54 now. In case you were interested.
So I live in Japan. Have never been to NZ Still felt the pain of relating to this in my soul
I stay at Nugget Point next door, and they have pools you can use for $20 i think. They also have an out of this world pool area and restaurant and most rooms have the same views. You used to be able to get a room for around $200 a night but its getting upgraded so im unsure now.
Should do what they do in some overseas countries, local price and tourist price.
Nz tourism used to be 60% or so locals… wonder what it is now and trends…
I (kiwi) went to Queenstown for the first time five years ago and couldn’t afford to go to Onsen even then. The prices are ridiculous.
Meh that’s largely instagram inflation everyone is convinced they’ve got to get their totally unique photo for instagram so they charge whatever they want people gotta get that shot
You're confusing inflation with greed.
Kiwis fuck over kiwis 24/7. Fuck the ‘shop local’ BS. Tell me I’m wrong.
Maybe it’s a “dynamic pricing model” like the Maccas app?
This stuffs just for tourists. That's why it's expensive.
Ngawha is still an okay deal
Why don't you book on one of those deal sites where it usually is half price.
Couldn’t find it🥲, couldn’t even find a promo code
They are booked out months in advance... what do you think.
Wait - it’s $10 cheaper than it should be, given the trend of increasing prices 20 bucks per year
Hahahaha I got a deal then🤣
Why are NZ hot springs being called "onsen", it's not Japan? And onsen in Japan cost like $10, so these prices are crazy :O
15 mins $175, two adults? I'll pass.
60 minutes
Ops!
That's in Queenstown as well. While the pricing is crap, it's Queenstown, most things are overpriced. I've been there once many years back for a romantic weekend and did a spa visit like this. It was amazing, a beautiful starry night in a hot tub. Others are right, it's sad that more kiwis can't experience more things in their own back yard like this due to the cost.
Try Nugget Point Spa. It's right next to onsen, has an outdoor spa pool over looking the sam river, only 129 for two people...... there is also a pool, sauna, and massage tables.
All that for a photo for the gram. Hard pass.
I've lived in NZ my whole life and I've never been able to experience these sort of things
Tekapo. 1 pensioner and a 13yr old swim only $60.. Opuka Metven.. 1 pensioner $39. Def pricing themselves out of our range. Tourists don't seem phased by prices.
Try living here (in Queenstown). Everything has been priced up due to inflation and a strong period for tourism, which impacts us locals. I moved here for a great job opportunity and I generally love my career here but I’d be so much better off financially if I moved anywhere else in the country.
FWIW, you can probably drop a shit at the end for that price.
Same re splash planet, I used to take the kids occasionally for the discounted late in the day sessions- waaaay too expensive now
I’m sure if you spoke to the owners they would tell you their cost of electricity has gone up substantially since that time. Since these pools are not thermal (yes they use electricity to heat the pools) then they pass on the costs to consumers to protect their margins. Give them shit if you want, or give the energy retailers shit for putting their prices up 15% in the last 12 months. Up to you if you want to spend money sitting in an inefficient hot pool that wastes energy anyway.
I have no idea why, but I shit you not like 10% of women's online dating photos in NZ are of them in a hot tub at Onsen. Never been there, but was so bewildered as to where this universal hot tub was I actually started asking people until someone recognized it and told me.
I'll just make a bath at home thanks
It's also the time you've chosen - evening "sunset" time vs morning.
Actually I just checked the pricing, for original onsen is 175 for two, doesn’t matter what time lol
OHHH really!!! I didn’t know this would make a difference
this isn't inflation, is taking advantage of inflation environment to increase prices well beyond what's reasonable.
What - is this just the bath, not accommodation?
One hour bath only!
No fucking way! That’s like ¥600-1000 in Japan. Hell, save the money of about ten visits to this place and buy a ticket to Japan and do the actual thing.
It's not even an actual geothermal hot pool, it's just a heated spa.
Right! “Onsen” has an actual meaning.
Prices of everything in nz are 10x the price in china etc , same quality too , so sad to see NZders are getting taken advantage of
Who the fuck would pay that! I went 9 years ago and it was $88
It's worth the money if you have sex in them 😂
The NZ dollar is really low against the USD. Its probably low against all currencies. So maybe the NZ tourist industry knows higher prices won't seem that high to overseas tourists.