Rotorua

---

The weather today is cold and lightly raining, so we slept in for the first time on this trip. We wanted to go to the Rotorua tourism office and museum so we dressed in our rain jackets and headed out. Everything we need here is only a few blocks away. Michael has done really well on selecting motels that are within walking distance of all our needs. We are both enjoying the no car lifestyle and with all the walking we don’t have to make time to work out.
We went to the tourism office, which also serves as their DOC information office and Michael asked about Tongariro Crossing walk in Taupo. We have been concerned about it since the weather is so cool. The lady at the DOC said that there was snow at higher elevations but the trail was open. We decided that we would go to Taupo from Rotorua.
We walked on towards the Government Gardens, originally planted in the late 1800’s, and watched some elderly people from the Rotorua Lawn Bowling Club play Boche Ball. The gardens were beautiful and the area in front of the impressive building that is now the Rotorua Museum is laid out for Boche Ball and Lawn Bowling. We noticed a building that was built in the Spanish Mission Art Deco style so, of course, I had to investigate. Turns out it was built as a public bath in 1933 and served as Rotorua’s central swimming complex until it was closed in 1981. The “Blue Baths” building fell into disrepair for the next 17 years until it was reopened as a heritage attraction in 1999. We enjoyed wandering through the old building and talked about coming back to swim in one of the reopened pools.
From there we went to the Rotorua Museum of Art & History, located in an elegant tudor-style building that was originally a theraputic thermal water bath house opened in 1908. Due to the caustic nature of the thermal water, it was a constant maintenance nightmare and shortly served many other uses, such as hospital and military recuperation center. It is a beautiful building with Kauri wood stairways and beams.
We left the Museum and walked a short trail through a thermal area, then went by the Polynesian Spa, which is the major thermal water bathhouse today. Maybe we will come back tomorrow for a thermal swim.
We were picked up by the Tamaki Heritage coach and were taken to the Tamaki Maori Village where there were demonstrations of Maori village life, dances and a traditional Hangi dinner, cooked in earthen pits on heated rocks. It was all very interesting and the lamb was wonderful.
On our bus was a nice German lady that was also on our bus at Ninety Mile Beach. We thought it was interesting that we ran into each other again.

---