Rotorua mud baths to have a facelift

A historically significant bath house hidden beneath the Rotorua museum is to be restored to its former glory.

The mud baths, which opened in 1908, have not been used since the 1960s, but museum projects coordinator Ann Somerville plans to redevelop them. Restoration should not be too costly, she says, as much remains in good condition.

While visitors will not be able to wallow in the mud, they will be able to view the bath house as it was in its heyday.

Ms Somerville spoke to residents who used to visit the baths and remembered the layout.

"[One woman] has told us exactly where the baths, shower, chaise longue and massage tables were."

The baths were most popular in their first 30 years. Soldiers flocked there in search of treatment for wounds and psychological damage suffered during the First World War.

After visiting a bath house doctor, patients were prescribed a course of massage, shower treatments and soaks in mud-filled Royal Doulton porcelain baths. The mud was also rolled in towels and pressed to the body in the hope of curing ailments from skin complaints to insomnia and nervous irritability.

During the 1960s the building fell into disrepair and the baths were no longer used. But interest in the underground health mecca never waned.

"There's been a steady stream of people begging to be let back down there," Ms Somerville said.

Several people died at the site of the baths when Mt Tarawera erupted more than a century ago.

- NZPA