Rotorua Daily Post
  • Rotorua Daily Post home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Sport
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Residential property listings
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
  • Rural
  • Sport

Locations

  • Tauranga
  • Te Puke
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Tokoroa
  • Taupō & Tūrangi

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales

Weather

  • Rotorua
  • Tauranga
  • Whakatāne
  • Tokoroa
  • Taupō

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Rotorua Daily Post

Coroner's report reveals cause of tourist drowning in Taupō hot stream

Laurilee McMichael
By Laurilee McMichael
Editor·Taupo & Turangi Weekender·
15 Jul, 2020 09:00 PM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

The Otumuheke Stream, pictured in November 2017, is a Taupō thermal stream popular with tourists and locals. Photo / File

The Otumuheke Stream, pictured in November 2017, is a Taupō thermal stream popular with tourists and locals. Photo / File

It is a popular free bathing spot in Taupō - the Otumuheke thermal stream in the town's Spa Park. But for one tourist, it became deadly.

The Otumuheke Stream is visited by thousands of tourists and locals every year. And when Lu San Quing, a Chinese man visiting his son in New Zealand, went to the hot stream at the Spa Thermal Park with his son, he enjoyed it so much that he asked to go back again.

Sadly, he did not return alive from his second trip to the hot stream. According to a hearing on the papers by Coroner Gordon Matenga, Mr Lu was overcome by the high temperature of the water, which was 44.4C. He fainted in the hot pool and drowned. The formal Coroner's verdict was death by misadventure.

Read More

  • Covid-19 coronavirus: Most deaths would not need to be reported to coroner - NZ Herald
  • Lakeside cliff remains deadly says coroner - NZ Herald
  • Eight part-time duty coroners appointed in $7.5m boost to reduce inquest backlog - NZ Herald
  • Reason for loss of control in Taupō crash undetermined, Coroner finds - NZ Herald

The finding was made in November 2018, a year after Mr Lu's death on November 21, 2017 but only recently released after an Official Information Act request.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The Coroner found that Mr Lu, 69, a retired man who lived in China, was in New Zealand visiting his son Chao Lu, who lived in Hamilton. Chao Lu had previously worked in Taupō and was aware of the thermal pools in the Otumuheke Stream, accessed via a short walk through Spa Park. The temperature of the pools vary as they mix with cooler water from the Waikato River, but are hotter upstream.

Chao Lu and Mr Lu had visited the hot pools in October together, spending about 30 minutes soaking in the thermal water. When Chao Lu had a day off work in November, Mr Lu asked his son if they could visit the hot pools again before his return to China the following week. They drove to Taupō and Chao Lu dropped his father off at Spa Park at 11am before going to visit a friend.

At around 12.20pm a German tourist at the pools with two friends saw Mr Lu lying face down in one of the pools. He was unresponsive, so she and her friends dragged him from the pool, called emergency services and began CPR, but Mr Lu could not be revived.

The area around the hot stream had a makeover in 2018 to reduce visitor impact on the natural environment and make it safer. Photo / Laurilee McMichael
The area around the hot stream had a makeover in 2018 to reduce visitor impact on the natural environment and make it safer. Photo / Laurilee McMichael

A post-mortem report revealed that Mr Lu had drowned. Toxicology revealed he had not been overcome by excessive levels of hydrogen sulphide which have caused hot pool deaths in the past. The pathologist instead considered that Mr Lu had fainted in response to the high temperature of the water.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The Coroner found that although there were signs in the area warning of the dangers of swimming in the nearby Waikato River, there were none regarding the hot stream water or that it got hotter further upstream.

"The fact that the water is hot should be immediately apparent to bathers, but there is nevertheless a danger, as seen by the death of Mr Lu, for an unsuspecting member of the public to underestimate their ability to cope with the warm water temperatures for an extended period of time," the Coroner's report said.

Discover more

New Zealand

Collapsed in a river, her breath stopped for 18 minutes

30 Jun 11:00 PM

Tourism slump hits Taupō marketers' jobs

01 Jul 11:37 PM

Town gets behind 3-year-old with rare cancer

08 Jul 05:00 PM

Better than left rotting on the hill

21 Jul 01:00 AM

He did not make a formal recommendation about signage but encouraged the Taupō District Council to consider whether the signs at the Spa Park entrance adequately warned of the risks of enjoying the Waikato River, thermal pools and "natural wonders of the area".

GOLOCAL
GOLOCAL

At the time of Mr Lu's death, the council had planned to upgrade facilities at the Otuhuheke thermal stream, adding toilets, changing rooms and lockers, pathways and a water fountain, work which was completed the following year.

Acting council chief executive Dylan Tahau says that as part of the redevelopment of the Otumuheke Stream, hazard signage and fencing was erected in the area.

That included fences and signs that prevented access to the most dangerous area, where Mr Lu's death occurred.

The council was also currently reviewing all the signage in the area to ensure they were current and clear, he said.

A 2010 coroner's inquest into the deaths of two men in Rotorua motel geothermal hot pools who had been overcome by hydrogen sulphide gas, recommended that bathers in geothermal pools should always be with another person.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Latest from Rotorua Daily Post

Rotorua Daily Post

'We must stand up': Kawerau residents oppose water service merger

22 Jun 09:08 PM
Rotorua Daily Post

Guardian patrols extend to Rotorua Central mall

22 Jun 06:46 PM
Premium
Opinion

Phil Gifford: How Crusaders' resilience toppled the Chiefs in epic final

22 Jun 06:05 PM

Help for those helping hardest-hit

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Rotorua Daily Post

'We must stand up': Kawerau residents oppose water service merger

'We must stand up': Kawerau residents oppose water service merger

22 Jun 09:08 PM

The ratepayers oppose water services merger with Rotorua, Whakatāne, Ōpōtiki councils.

Guardian patrols extend to Rotorua Central mall

Guardian patrols extend to Rotorua Central mall

22 Jun 06:46 PM
Premium
Phil Gifford: How Crusaders' resilience toppled the Chiefs in epic final

Phil Gifford: How Crusaders' resilience toppled the Chiefs in epic final

22 Jun 06:05 PM
'Our sacred state of reset': Puanga rises over Ruapehu to herald Māori new year

'Our sacred state of reset': Puanga rises over Ruapehu to herald Māori new year

22 Jun 05:00 PM
How a Timaru mum of three budding chefs stretched her grocery shop
sponsored

How a Timaru mum of three budding chefs stretched her grocery shop

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Rotorua Daily Post e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Rotorua Daily Post
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP
search by queryly Advanced Search