Discover Rotorua - Geothermal Reserve

Extract below from Tourism NZ website:

"...For more than 700 years, local Maori (Ngati Rangiteaorere tribe) have lived on this special site, treasured by Maori as a place of healing and revitalisation.

The first Euopeans visited Hell's Gate, Tikitere more than 150 years ago. As New Zealand's only Maori owned geothermal reserve, Hell's Gate is of major importance to the Ngati Rangiteaorere tribe who have interacted with this land and its unique geothermal features for more than 700 years.

Follow the footsteps of WARRIORS of old through the swirling clouds of steam, past the pool where the Maori Princess “Hurutini” lost her life. The special muds and sulphurous waters have been guarded for centuries by Kaitiaki, ‘Wai Ora’ (guardian warrior) after whom the spa is named. See the geothermal activity of the Inferno, the Kakahi Falls, the largest hot waterfall in the Southern Hemisphere.

Here, warriors would bathe in the sulphurous waters to heal their wounds after battle and remove the “tapu” (sacredness) of war."


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