Polynesian Spa

Polynesian Spa in Rotorua draws sulphurous geothermal spring water directly from the shores of Lake Rotorua in the Bay of Plenty region of the North Island, where the active volcanic system of the Taupo Volcanic Zone produces alkaline and acidic springs of different temperatures and mineral compositions within metres of each other in a geothermal field that makes Rotorua the most thermally active inhabited city in the Southern Hemisphere. The Maori people of the Arawa confederation have used the Rotorua geothermal springs for cooking, bathing, and therapeutic purposes since the fourteenth century, and the Te Arawa understanding of the geothermal landscape as a gift of Ruaumoko, the unborn god of earthquakes and geothermal activity who moves within the Earth, gives the Polynesian Spa's use of the volcanic springs a cultural and spiritual depth that European balneology's clinical vocabulary cannot fully translate. The combination of lake-edge pools with views across the steaming surface of Rotorua's sulphurous lake, the acidic Priest Pool and the alkaline Lake Spa pools with their different therapeutic profiles, and the living Maori culture of a city where the geothermal landscape is inseparable from identity and history, makes Polynesian Spa one of the most geologically and culturally distinctive thermal experiences in the Pacific world.