After spending the morning rolling down a hill in a giant ball filled with water, my friend Allison and I decide to take the rest of the afternoon off.

At a spa, naturally.

The Polynesian Spa is centrally located just around the corner from our hostel. The steam rising from the natural hot springs beckons us.

For $25 each, we have access to seven pools. There are other options too; we only visit maybe half of the public pools, plus there are private pools available for rent.

Here’s a more detailed list of the seven pools we visit:

The pools are fed with hot mineral spring water from two different springs.

Three cascading, marble-lined pools (38˚C to 39˚C), feature alkaline water. The smooth terraced walls provide a popular resting spot for bathers.

The large deeper alkaline pool (38˚C) is an excellent place to stretch out for some light activity.

The three Priest Spa pools (39˚C to 42˚C), offer special thermal bathing in acidic water from the Radium hot spring, long renowned for its therapeutic properties. The Priest Spa was named after a catholic priest, who in the late 1800’s gained great relief from arthritis when bathing in the hot spring waters.

Here’s Allison reading her book. We spend about eight hours in the spa and both of us finish reading our respective novels during that time.

There’s a cafe on site that allows customers to bring food and drinks (minus alcohol) back to the spa. We pick smoothies for a poolside treat.

It’s getting dark by the time we leave. A day well spent!