Rotorua

Situated on the southern shore of a lake of the same name, Rotorua is the North Island’s most popular tourist destination. Despite the pungent, rotten egg smell of hydrogen sulphide gas emanating from countless bores and ground fissures, the town’s hot and steamy thermal activity, healing mineral pools, and surrounding lakes, rivers and crystal springs are major attractions. This is also a major centre of Maori culture, offering Maori art, architecture, song dance and colourful evening entertainment.

We had a stroll through Government Gardens. These are laid out in front of the stately Tudor style Rotorua Museum of Art and History. This was once the Great Spa of the South Pacific in 1908. There are a series of bowling greens and formal flower gardens dotted with steaming thermal pools. There is a Arawa migration canoe on display, from which Rotorua’s Te Arawa people trace their decent. The entrance to the park has examples of Maori art, welcoming you into the park.

We then walked through the compact town towards St Faith’s Anglican Church. Built in 1910, the Tudor style St Faith’s is the second church built at Ohinemutu, a Maori village on the shores of the lake around which Rotorua grew. It houses an etched glass window in the chapel depicting Christ dressed in a korowai (chief’s cloak) and appearing to walk on the waters of Lake Rotorua. The interior is richly embellished with Maori carvings, woven wall panels and painted scrollwork.

The church is situated next to the magnificent Tamatekapua meeting house, built in 1873. This is the main gathering place of the Arawa tribe. The Maori village is situated around these two sites, and there is steam coming out of the pavements and gutters. Houses and the public loo have pipes coming from their roofs to let the steam escape.

We had a trip out to Te Wairoa village, just on the outskirts of Rotorua. This is a village that was devastated by the eruption of Mount Tarawera in 1886. We had a guided tour by an ancestor of the inhabitants which took us around the excavations of several sites. These have been reconstructed to show the village before the ash and larva covered it. As this all happened in relatively recent history, there were photographs and artefacts from the village, which was home to Maori and European settlers.
After an afternoon of culture, we headed back to Rotorua to stuff our faces with afternoon tea in the town’s oldest hotel. Lots of freshly baked fairy cakes and sandwiches yum.