A European Tradition

“The Baths of Rotorua are designed for the needs of those who come for pleasure, and those who come for ‘the cure’…”
A.S. Wohlmann, The Mineral Waters and Spas of New Zealand, 1914.

Thermal baths have been used in Europe for centuries for the treatment of a wide variety of illnesses. Spas became fashionable during the 18th and early 19th centuries as relaxing meeting places for royalty and leading society figures, as well as places to “take the cure”. The rich, ill and famous consulted balneologists who treated diseases with baths and water cures.

The Bath House has direct links with this tradition.

Thirteen sculptures adorned the foyer or “pump room” of the Bath House. Twelve were originally bought by the commissioners of the New Zealand International Exhibition in Christchurch (1906 – 1907) from Charles Francis Summers, a Melbourne Sculptor.

They were purchased by the Department of Tourist and Health Resorts for a sum of £2 000, shipped to Auckland and sent to Rotorua by rail. Dr Wohlmann hoped that the luxuriously appointed foyer would serve the same social purpose as the pumproom of an English spa or the kursaal in a German establishment.

CLICK HERE TO FIND MORE ABOUT THE SUMMERS SCULPTURES

A Brief History of the Rotorua Spa

The potential value of Rotorua’s thermal springs as a source of revenue had been noted as early as 1874. Concentrated not far from Lake Rotorua’s edge in an area known as Te Kauanga, were a variety of thermal pools nestled amongst pumice, sulphur and manuka.
When tourists arrived to see the Pink and White Terraces of Rotomahana they also wanted to bathe in this wild thermal area.

In 1878 Father Mahoney, a Catholic Priest from Tauranga disabled with arthritis, was carried to Rotorua to bathe in the small waiariki (spring) known by the Arawa people as Te Pupunitanga. After soaking in its acidic waters he was able to walk back to Tauranga, and the pool became known as the “Priest’s Bath”.

In 1882 the Pavilion Bath, the first building of the new Government township of Rotorua, was built on the site of the Priest’s Bath. It fell down two years later, a portent of maintenance problems in store for other bath-houses in the area.

taking-the-cure-story-two Twelve patients were accommodated in the first sanatorium which opened in 1885. The nearby waters were hailed as cures for ailments such as “plethora and corpulency”, “congestions of the viscera” and sexual impotence. Priest water was said to reduce a craving for alcohol.
In 1885 the first Blue Baths were opened, and in 1895 the highly acidic Postmaster Baths were completed, patients being advised to “sit quietly in the water so as to avoid any unnecessary disengagement of gases.”

The Pavilion Baths were rebuilt in 1887 by Camille Malfroy, and in 1896 he added a women’s swimming bath to the facility. A second and larger Sanatorium was built in 1891.

taking-the-cure-story-three Bath structures gradually became more imposing. The Duchess Bath built, to celebrate the visit of the Duchess of York, opened on the site of the present Polynesian Spa in 1901.

The Bath House, which opened in 1908, is the only surviving building from the first 45 years of the Rotorua spa. Elements of the Ward Baths, constructed on the site of the Duchess Bath in 1930, remain integrated into the present Polynesian Spa.

Things to See and Do

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A European Tradition