Going to the Museum with Granny

In Rotorua  there is a fabulous building...

... with the kind of twiddly bits we don't see much in New Zealand.

Although these days it's an art gallery and cafe and museum, 100 years ago, it was the pride of the New Zealand Government Tourist Board, the 'South Sea Island Spa'.

Of course, at that time, the whole of New Zealand was touted as a wondrous and healthy country with: 

Magnificent Scenery, Mild and Equable Climate.

No extremes of Heat or Cold, no Droughts, no Blizzards.

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HOT LAKES       WONDERFUL GEYSERS

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Abundant Hot Mineral Springs possessing marvellous curative powers

Resident Government Medical Officers at the various Spas.

Delightful routes of travel everywhere by rail, steamer, and coach.

Ice-clad Alps.  Magnificent Sea Fiords.

Angling and Deer-stalking for the Sportsman.  Beautiful Lakes and Rivers.

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FOR THE HOME-SEEKER, THE HEALTH-SEEKER, 

THE WEALTH-SEEKER, and THE PLEASURE-SEEKER,

there is no better country than

NEW ZEALAND 

Back in those days people were very keen to discover quick ways to get healthy.  They could see what was inside them by opening a special stomach flap, so were always able to monitor themselves.

If you had 'racking pain and dread', New Zealand was the answer.  After a trip to CURELAND you would return home to the USA, Canada or Britain pain-free and dreadless.

You could have a variety of treatments.  The mineral water could be drunk or bathed in, electrified (undercurrent, overhead current or overhead douche), or, presumably, non electrified.

You could bathe in mud, be wrapped in hot mineral towels, and, if the fumes made you feel faint, well, that wasn't uncommon.  Just think what a nice rest your brain was having, and the how much good the hydrogen sulphide was doing for your system. 

Granny points to where an old mud bath used to be situated

There were sit-in baths, lie-in baths, and a huge variety of other 'special'  treatments.  Some of these involved nurses, doctors, glass instruments and alarm clocks.  "Ding-aling-aling-aling!  Your time is up Mr Pudding.  You have inhaled enough toxic fumes for the day."

Afterwards you sat in the 'cooling room' surrounded by others recovering from passing out during their treatments cooling down after their treatments.

The Cooling Room.

White marble pseudo-Renaissance statues of naked ladies and children promoted the body beautiful and showed you what a really long treatment at the Rotorua Bathhouse would eventually result in.

Later you might feel pain- or dread-less enough for a push in your bath chair or a stroll around the grounds.  Or maybe even a game of croquet?