One of the outcomes of visiting New Zealand is that you come back endorsing the very adjectives that lured you to it in the first place — beautiful, breath-taking, friendly, adventurous, relaxing…
Pretty much every length and breadth of the twin-islands is picturesque. I was sold on the idea of visiting it ever since I learnt the fantasy trilogy Lord of the Rings was filmed there. In fact, the locals believe that director Peter Jackson has done more to the cause of promoting the country than anybody else.
The first leg of my Kiwi trip was to be spent at Rotorua, a charming town that is 234 km from Auckland — which by Kiwi standards is a 2.5 hour-drive away. While its neighbouring town Hamilton is known to us Indians, especially the cricket fans, as a sporting venue, Rotorua is famous for its mud and water. Not any mud and water, but geothermally heated pools and mineral-rich mud, as Rotorua is in Taupo Volcanic Zone.
Tourists have been flocking to the town since the 1840s, when Europeans visited the pink and white terraces at Rotorua for a dip in the ‘medicinal’ waters of the natural terraced pools. This spa tourism gave rise to the hotel industry in the town and also helped the local Maori tribe flourish in the process.
The Mount Tarawera Eruption in 1886 razed the terraces down and along with it the livelihoods of people dependent on the tourists. But the stories of the power of the waters survived.
According to the Rotorua Museum, “The turn-of-the-century Government hoped to tempt wealthy northern hemisphere patrons to travel far from home to the Great South Seas Spa” — which is now the Rotorua Museum building, where remnants of the original baths are on display, as an ode to its past.
The Great South Seas Spa offered several therapeutic treatments using the water and mud of Rotorua to cure skin and joint conditions.
T.E. Donne, Superintendent, Department of Tourist and Health Resorts, prophetically noted in 1908: “The stream of travellers has certainly set towards New Zealand and the establishment of up-to-date Government baths will no doubt make Rotorua world-famous and attract thousands more every year.”
A century and more later, Rotorua is still known for its spas, taking pride in its geothermally active location — its mud, water, minerals and stone (jade) — are all packed and marketed ceremoniously. In fact, by the end of your trip, you are ready to believe that a roll in its mud is as good a spa treatment as any!
The Polynesian Spa — voted one of the world’s top 10 spas by Conde Nast Traveller twice — is right next to the Rotorua Museum. Though it’s got nothing Polynesian about it, the spa is more about the experience than the service itself.
In fact, that is the case in any spa or geothermal park across the town. Because you can take home the packaged mud in the form of soaps, scrubs, bath salts, mud packs, but they don’t come with the view of the sun setting on the island at the centre of the Rotorua lake or the smoking geysers spouting steam at will nor can you take home enough “magical water” to soak in.
Geothermal parks like Hell’s Gate offer you a glimpse of the scientific activity to “wow” at and supervised public and private mud baths to “ahhh” about. This particular park was named by George Bernard Shaw who, taken in by the cover of steam and boiling springs, believed that he had arrived at the “Gates of Hell” when visiting in 1903.
Each bath here contains 70 kg of rich geothermal mud a little of which is smoothed over the skin while you soak in the pool. Isn’t it ironical that it feels like heaven at Hell’s Gate?
After 20 minutes in the mud, it’s off to a dip in the sulphur-rich water in an adjacent pool. The smell of sulphur is quite strong – reminds you of your school chemistry lab, but definitely doesn’t feel like one.
Though at a temperature of 40 degree Celsius, some might find the waters a bit too warm, the heat helps the skin’s pores open up and facilitates exfoliation.
The fact that I was glowing in all the pictures post the spa session was good enough proof for me!
The writer was in Rotorua at the invitation of Tourism New Zealand
