Rotorua's bathouses bring back the past

By JENNY HOWARTH

At the turn of the century, "dreamers" saw Rotorua as the great spa town of the South Pacific.

Patronage by kings and emperors had made European health spas such as Marienbad popular with the rich and well-connected and optimists believed Rotorua could host a procession of British-Indian officers, Malayan planters and colonial administrators.

They would come to take the waters alongside the well-to-do Australians, North Americans and New Zealanders.

To establish the right ambience, formal gardens were laid out around the bathhouses. These were places for a gentle walk, where visitors could admire the flowers, enjoy a Sunday concert or visit the tearooms. Gradually, venues for popular sports - golf, tennis, croquet and bowls - were added.

Completed in 1908, the Rotorua Bathhouse became the focal point of the gardens. It was built in neo-Tudor style and was a place not only for treatment and to take the waters but for entertainment.

For about 30 years the bathhouse functioned as it was intended but it was bedevilled with maintenance problems.

The pipes were corroded by the acidic water and hydrogen sulphate turned paint black. By the 1930s the steam from the baths had caused the wooden pulp in the ceilings to swell and crack.

By 1947 the place was a virtual wreck and was abandoned.

In 1963 ownership of the bathhouse and gardens was transferred from the Government to the Rotorua City Council and the building became the Rotorua Museum of Art and History.

In the north wing part of the bathhouse survives, showing treatments patients endured, including massages, douches, electric baths and hot-air baths.

The bathhouse was in its heyday in 1914-1918, when shattered troops returning from Gallipoli or the Western Front were treated for trauma and shell shock as well as their wounds.

Nowadays major exhibitions fill the downstairs wings. In the south wing is Te Ohaaki o Houmatawhiti, with the taonga of the Arawa people. This comprises great carvings, weapons, greenstone pieces and intricately woven feather cloaks. Each of them is not only a work of art but embodies the spiritual mauri of the Arawa.

There is also a detailed display on the Tarawera eruption of 1886, with an audio-visual section which brings this catastrophic event to life.

Across the bowls lawn and petanque rink are the Blue Baths.

When these opened in the 1930s they had the glamour of a Hollywood film set. Unlike the bathhouse, these were built for pleasure and were among the first in New Zealand to open for mixed bathing.

The baths were designed by John T. Mair, an architect who trained in the US, who brought the Californian mission style to New Zealand, reflected in the design of the baths set in shady courtyards.

They also have many art deco flourishes _ the long, rounded, arched windows divided by barley twist columns, the chrome-plated door trim and the decorative grill on balconies and loggias.

Construction of the Blue Baths continued through the Depression of the 1930s, much of the work done by those on employment schemes, who worked under skilled craftsmen.

By the 1970s the baths were no longer economic and in 1982 its glass doors closed.

For the next 18 years, all the curious visitor could do was peep through the windows and wonder why there was no access to such an attractive building. Visitors today can do much more.

The tearooms upstairs are refurbished in the style of the 1930s. The changing rooms, with their luxurious cubicles and showers, are a museum which tells the story of the building and the history of mixed bathing here and in New Zealand in general.

The smaller juvenile pool at the far end of the complex has again opened for bathing, but the main pool is now a courtyard. As yet there are just too many maintenance problems to restore it.

The Polynesian Pool offers the latest in spa bathing with an elaborate complex of indoor and outdoor bathing and areas for families.

It is sited where the Priest's Spring bubbles up from the lake. Here, in 1878, Father Mahony claimed the water had cured his arthritis.

The water from the Radium Spring is similar. These are acidic springs which flow from the pumice and the spa has no control over their temperature, clarity or water level.

Most of the baths are, however, filled with alkaline water which flows from another spring about 100m from the complex. These waters have a soothing effect on the skin. Around all these bathhouses are gardens with brilliantly coloured flowerbeds.

What it costs

The Rotorua Museum of Art and History is open seven days a week from 9.30am to 6pm. The entrance cost is $10 for adults and $3 for children. Family passes for 2 adults and up to 3 children are $22. Rotorua residents with ID - free of charge.

There is an additional fee to swim at the Blue Baths: $7 for adults and $4 for children, $18 for a family.

The Polynesia Spa is a complex of 35 pools with public, private and family facilities and a full range of spa treatments. The pools are open from 6.30 am to 11pm. In the family area the cost is $12 for adults and $4 for children.

Rotorua Museum of Art and History

Rotorua District Council

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