Government Gardens (originally known as Paepaekumana) is a public park, partly laid out as gardens, located by Lake Rotorua in central Rotorua, Bay of Plenty, North Island, New Zealand.[1]
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The Rotorua Museum of Art and History, housed in the old Bath House building, looks over Government Gardens. There are sports facilities, including the Blue Baths swimming pool, a bowling green, and a croquet lawn. There is also a bandstand. The Polynesian Spa is close by, beside Lake Rotorua.
This site is of historical significance to the local Maori people, with battles having been fought here.[1] The Maori gave 50 acres of land here to the British Crown in the late 1800s. The New Zealand government opened a large bath house here in 1908. In 1933 a second building, the Blue Baths, opened.[2] The Blue Baths were closed in the 1980s, but have now been restored. The original Bath House was converted into a museum, which opened in 1988.