Our story

The town that was founded to host guests

Most towns exist because of a port, a mine, a river crossing. Rotorua exists because people wanted to come here — and because the people of this place decided to welcome them. When you stay in a hosted B&B on a quiet Glenholme street, you are taking part in the oldest thing this town does.

Long before there was a town, there was Ōhinemutu — the Ngāti Whakaue village on the lakeshore, where the steam rises between the houses to this day. In 1880, by agreement between Ngāti Whakaue and the Crown, a spa town was laid out on this ground for the visitors already arriving. The town's very first industry was hospitality, and it has never had another one to match it.

The eighth wonder of the world

What the visitors came for lay an hour beyond the lake: Ōtūkapuarangi and Te Tarata — the Pink and the White Terraces of Lake Rotomahana, the largest silica terraces on earth. Cascades of warm, mineral-blue basins stepped down the hillsides, and Victorian travellers crossed oceans to bathe in them.

The visit itself was a hosted experience — New Zealand's first tourism economy, Māori-owned and run. Tūhourangi controlled access, and guests were carried across the lake by canoe from the village of Te Wairoa, guided, fed and accommodated along the way.

Charles Blomfield's 1885 oil painting of the White Terraces — broad silica basins with two small figures standing on the terrace edge — Te Tarata, the White Terraces, painted in their final year. Charles Blomfield, *The Terraces (the white terraces)*, 1885 · Te Papa Collections Online

Charles Blomfield's 1885 oil painting of the Pink Terraces, with a canoe carrying visitors across the lake in the foreground — Ōtūkapuarangi, the Pink Terraces — a canoe carries visitors across the lake, the way every guest arrived. Charles Blomfield, *The Terraces (the pink terraces)*, 1885 · Te Papa Collections Online

The painter Charles Blomfield camped and sketched at Rotomahana in 1876 and again in 1885. His timing gave his canvases a weight nobody could have wished for: within months, the terraces existed nowhere else.

The mountain that changed everything

Charles Blomfield's 1885 painting of Mount Tarawera, whole and unbroken, across brown valleys — Mount Tarawera painted whole, about a year before the eruption. Charles Blomfield, *[Mt Tarawera from vicinity of Parehera]*, c.1885 · Auckland War Memorial Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira

Mount Tarawera today, seen across the blue water of Lake Tarawera from the lookout road — The same mountain today, from the Tarawera Road lookout — twenty minutes from the suite. photo: BnB Journeys, 2022

In the early hours of 10 June 1886, Tarawera erupted along its entire length. Lake Rotomahana exploded, burying the surrounding valleys in mud and ash. By morning the terraces were gone, the village of Te Wairoa lay buried, and about 120 people — most of them Tūhourangi — had lost their lives. It remains New Zealand's deadliest eruption, and the mountain still wears the great rift along its summit.

Te Wairoa — the village you can still visit

Te Wairoa village before the eruption — whare, fences, the two-storey hotel, with the hills behind — Te Wairoa before the eruption — whare, gardens and the two-storey hotel where terrace-bound guests stayed. photo: C. Spencer · Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections, Kura 406244

A whare with red carved pou at the excavated Buried Village site today, among tree ferns — The excavated village today at the Buried Village of Te Wairoa. photo: BnB Journeys, 2022

🥾 Walk this story: the Buried Village is twenty minutes from the suite — the excavated streets and recovered belongings of Te Wairoa, kept by the same family since 1931 — and pairs naturally with Waimangu Volcanic Valley, the world's youngest geothermal valley, born that same morning in 1886. Jan can plan the loop for you.

The town rebuilds its promise

Rotorua had lost its wonder four years into its life — and answered by doubling down on the one thing that remained everywhere underfoot: the heat itself. The government engineer Camille Malfroy coaxed dormant vents in the Sanatorium grounds back to life — a town literally engineering geysers for its guests. The railway arrived from Auckland in 1894, and the coaches ran daily to the geysers at Whakarewarewa.

Malfroy's engineered geyser erupting inside a fenced pool in the Sanatorium grounds, two onlookers at the rail, 1891 — "Malfroy's new geyser" in the Sanatorium grounds, 1891 — the town that engineered geysers for its guests. photo: J. Martin · Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections, Kura 110609

Coaches and horses waiting outside the two-storey verandahed Geyser Hotel at Whakarewarewa, 1893 — Coaches at the Geyser Hotel, Whakarewarewa, 1893 — the daily run to the geothermal valley. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections, Kura 111374

In 1901 the government founded the Department of Tourist and Health Resorts — the first national tourism department anywhere in the world — and ran Rotorua as its showcase. This town was professionally welcoming guests before the word "tourism" had settled into the language; the landmark i-SITE in the town centre is that office's direct descendant.

The Great South Seas Spa

The Tudor-style Bath House about 1910, with tennis nets on the lawns in front — The Bath House about 1910, tennis nets on the lawn — the grandest spa building in the southern hemisphere. lantern slide · Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections, Kura 54968

The Bath House today across the Government Gardens lawn under a dramatic sky — The same building today, across the Government Gardens lawn — a short stroll from the suite. photo: BnB Journeys

The Bath House of 1908 — "the Great South Seas Spa" — was the young department's masterpiece, and guesthouses spread down Fenton Street to meet the trains. The town has been growing around its guests ever since.

Fenton Street, Rotorua, photographed in 1904 — Fenton Street in 1904 — the road every guest still arrives on. Te Papa Collections Online

Fields into streets — the story of Glenholme

Aerial photograph from 1947 of the Glenholme homestead in its gardens, surrounded by open farmland — The Glenholme homestead in its gardens, 1947 — the farmland this suburb grew from, and the name it keeps. Whites Aviation · Alexander Turnbull Library, ref. 30644869

Steam drifting over the Lake Rotorua shore near Ōhinemutu under a moody sky — Steam still rising at the lakeshore, ten minutes from Sumner Street. photo: BnB Journeys, 2024

Our own corner of the story is younger than you might think. In 1947 the Glenholme homestead still stood in open fields; within a decade the quiet streets of this suburb had grown up around its gardens, and the name stayed. Sumner Street is one of them — close to everything the town built for its guests, on ground that was farmland in living memory.

Still hosting, 145 years on

In 2023 Ngāti Whakaue — whose agreement created this town — opened Wai Ariki Hot Springs & Spa on the lakefront: the people who first welcomed guests here, welcoming them still. And in Glenholme, Jan keeps the oldest promise of this town in her own way: a warm suite, a cooked breakfast, and somebody glad you came.

Stay in the story — book direct with Jan

[ draft notes: all archive images carry DigitalNZ "commercial use" clearance; per our rights procedure each landing page gets a final confirmation + exact reference numbers before publishing. Jan: does this telling sit right with you? Anything here your guests ask about that we should add — or anything you'd rather we said more carefully? ]