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Government Gardens Review

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Government Gardens

Address: Government Gardens, Arawa St., Rotorua
Phone: 07/349-4350
www.rotoruamuseum.co.nz

Category: Museums/Galleries
Location: The Rotorua Area

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Fodor's Review:

Heading south from the lake takes you to the Government Gardens, which occupy a small peninsula. The Maori call this area Whangapiro (fang-ah-pee-ro, "evil-smelling place"), an appropriate name for these gardens, where sulfur pits bubble and fume behind manicured rose beds and bowling lawns. The high point is the extraordinary neo-Tudor Bath House. Built as a spa at the turn of the 20th century, it is now the Rotorua Museum of Art & History. One room on the ground floor is devoted to the eruption of Mt. Tarawera in 1886. On display are a number of artifacts unearthed from the debris and remarkable photographs of the silica terraces of Rotomahana before the eruption. Don't miss the old bath rooms, where some equipment would be right at home in a torture chamber—one soaking tub even administered electric current to the body.

Cost: $11
Open: Oct.-Apr., daily 9-8; May-Sept., daily 9-5

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