There's something about Rotorua that draws you back. My first links there were as an 8-year-old on a family holiday away from the Bay of Islands, and I was back as a young bloke on cricket and rugby trips.
But it was as a reporter living there in 1970 that I really got to know Rotorua. It was an unsophisticated place, so we got on pretty well.
I still remember leading Canadian friends to the pleasures of Kerosene Creek, well south of the city, and charging - as you did - in various stages of undress down the forest track in the darkness to a pool fed by the thermal stream. Those same friends still talk today, 38 years later, about the simple delight of discovering something distinctively Rotorua.
Today, no one would suggest the city is the epitome of chic and refinement. But it's come a long way in the last 15 years and, through investment and smart civic leadership, is appealing now as well as entertaining.
This trip, for instance, starts with a comfortable cruise to Mokoia Island. The party is an interesting mix: with us is a young Welsh woman on a two-week New Zealand holiday and a trio of boffins set to explore the island's speckled skinks.
After an absorbing two-hour trek through the Mokoia tracks - enlightened along the way by a guide dripping with knowledge and enthusiasm - we leave behind the magic of Hinemoa and Tutanekai and head for Hannah's Bay, out by the airport, and Rotorua's newest resort.
The driving force behind Wai Ora Lakeside Spa Resort is husband-and-wife business team, Bryan and Lisa Hughes. They established Wai Ora Group 13 years ago, forging a joint venture with the Tikitere Trust (the Rangitorere hapu of Te Arawa) and introducing a modern spa to the famous Hell's Gate attraction.
The couple also transported the cultural spa concept to Bangkok, and recently won a 30-year lease to operate tourist tours to Mokoia. Now they hope their resort - opened late last year - will become an important and successful cog in their three-pronged Rotorua business wheel.
The original Hughes plan was to develop a downtown spa resort, but the testing local authority rules forced a change of plan - out to Hannah's Bay where a once-grand old farm homestead-turned-lodge was starting to feel its age.
If you stayed in Manary Lodge back in the 50 and 60s, you may have romantic memories, for it was apparently as posh as the times allowed. But the years had been cruel and, while the outline remains today, a $10 million investment has transformed a relic into a luxury lake-edge resort.
The 10 superior suites are as swish as any you'll find, right down to the in-room choice of soft, medium or hard pillows. The 20 deluxe studios are also beautifully presented, if a tad skinny.
In the restaurant, the food is beautifully cooked and presented, using a range of indigenous flora. Anyone for kopiko pesto, Mokoia mushroom or kawakawa oil?
But it is the spa side of things - supported by the corporate and wedding business which will be drawn by the spacious facilities - that promises a bright future past the murk of recession.
Maori cultural and native elements (miri miri massage, kawakawa-infused sauna and steam room, mud wraps and volcanic stone massage) are mixed with standard spa treatments that will smooth the wrinkles of the weariest body. Such pleasures, like the rooms, do not come cheap.
But this is a place for special occasions: a walk along the lake, a soak in a mineral spa, a cocktail in the cosy bar, and dinner in a fine resort restaurant.
Then drag yourself upstairs to put your head on that soft/medium/hard pillow and position the hot water bottle (placed by the turn-down service) beneath your feet.
Bruce Morris was hosted by Wai Ora Lakeside Spa Resort. To find out more about the resort, call 0800 345 318.
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