But there are advantages to living in a geothermal area. One is that you can have free hot water. The city has been using the underground hot water sources since Maori times. The Maoris bathed and cooked their food in the hot water (at different temperatures of course). The Europeans followed suit, and opened a spa resort. No, health spas aren’t a modern invention – the Victorians were addicted to them. Rotorua has preserved its oldest, set in this mock Tudor mansion.

It is now a museum and not a spa resort, but inside you do get an idea of how grand it all was. People came from all over the world to experience its ‘cures’.

The treatments offered back in the day were pretty extreme. Swims, soaks and showers at various temperatures, hot towel wraps, massages, electricution and x-rays (to stimulate the blood), and literal mud baths in the dank basement!

Added to that a meagre diet, drinking disgusting mineral water, and taking a walk by the lake, and you’d be good as new (or so they say) whatever your ailment. Personally, I’d stick to a simply massage and spa.