Well, the short walk turned out to be quite different from the one we had planned. We had to walk in to town and through to the other side to find the start of the short walk we had chosen, which took us 30 minutes and after casting around a bit further, we still couldn't find where the walk began. We decided to cut our losses and walk back via the site of the old hospital in the town.
We had seen signs about Queen Mary's Hospital as we had walked into the town and from the information boards it seemed it was an historic place, not open to the public but the grounds were open to walk in.
It was to our surprise that we found that all the buildings of the hospital were still intact and we had an absolutely fascinating time walking around the grounds looking at the Soldiers Block,
the Chisholm Ward
and the Nurse's Hostel.
The original Soldier's Block had been built and opened in 1916, so that military personnel could reap the benefit of the hot springs to help in their recovery. Before then, there had been a sanitarium on the site, built in the late 1800's, around the time that the British “discovered” the thermal pools (no doubt the Maori people had known about them for generations before this.) In 1914, the day WW1 broke out, the sanitarium burnt down. The Soldier's Block had been staffed by military personnel who had lived in the village. However, when it was decided to build a unit for women, to be named the Chisholm Ward, in 1926 it was decided that it would also be necessary to build a nurse's hostel. This was constructed in 1928. An interesting notice appeared on the front door to say that no client was allowed entrance (but some of the windows were quite low round the back!)
All three buildings were in use until 2003 when the hospital was closed down (presumably 'cost efficiencies' in health services are not solely a British problem) and everything was handed over to the local authority. Rather a poisoned chalice you may well think. However, whilst the buildings and grounds do not seem to be utilised at present they are being cared for; we couldn't see any broken windows or other vandalisation and everything seemed to have had a recent external coat of paint. There was also evidence of renovation/maintenance going on. The scale and beauty of the buildings was amazing, one built in the Arts and Crafts style and we walked around peering through windows down endless corridors and glimpsing interesting rooms. Sadly there are only guided tours on a Sunday, so we will not have an opportunity to see inside properly but we are sure each building and, indeed, almost every room would have its own fascinating story to tell.
The pools we had been in earlier in the day had originally been part of the hospital and had obviously been hived off and commercialised subsequent to the closure. Having missed out on our original walk, we really felt we had had a most rewarding time and the experience will be one of the enduring memories of our trip.
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