Mel Williams, Visitor Experience
I fell down a bit of a rabbit hole this week. I started in the museum at Kiwi North reading two advertisements for the Kamo Springs Sanatorium and I ended up venturing into a world of natural healing, medical miracles, heritage, recreation and World War One relief efforts. All because of the mineral water that flows below the ground in Kamo.
The advertisements for the sanatorium are small, the size of a business card, but they promise a lot. A facility in which you can bathe your ails away in the “finest mineral water in the world”. They refer to the natural mineral baths that were available at the time, brimming with curative properties. Rheumatism, sciatica and kidney troubles could be eased by the restorative waters. As could dyspesia, meaning indigestion and mental health issues like nervous debility.
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And it was reportedly very easy to get there. Just take the train to the Ruatangata Springs Station, near the old Kamo Brickworks, then enjoy a short walk in the beautiful countryside to the door of the sanatorium on Great North Road. The thing I loved most about this advertisement is the telephone number. 76 on the Whangarei Exchange. That alone is an insight into a world no longer here.
The facility itself began as an accommodation house. It was built by James J. Taylor, opened to the public in 1894 and included two baths. Three years later a swimming pool was also on offer and a Champagne Bath, in which the tingling bubbles of gas are said to have felt like bathing in champagne.
The decision was made to build a hotel on the premises and to transform the accommodation house into a sanatorium. The Kamo Springs Hotel was opened in 1902, a two-storey complex including four natural pools and some artificially heated private baths.
Tragedy did befall the hotel on numerous occasions due to gases and fumes from the natural springs being dangerous in enclosed spaces. They had deadly potential if not meticulously measured each day and it is believed at least six people lost their lives to this phenomenon.
Today, the hotel is no longer there as it was destroyed by fire after just fourteen years of operation.
The Kamo Springs Sanatorium underwent a lot of transformations. It was opened to the public in 1901 and offered an accessible retreat for rest and quiet, specifically for city businessman, visitors and tourists. The refreshing and recuperative waters, so close to town, made it a popular place for locals and holiday-makers alike.
It underwent further change during World War One, taking in up to 50 soldiers at a time who had been injured and sent home. It then became a convalescence home for returned servicemen after the war.
In the 1930s it was turned into a tearooms and recreation centre offering a large open-air swimming pool and tennis courts but further decline in the interest of spas meant that by the 1950s it was all over for the sanatorium which, like the hotel, is now no longer there.
But it’s not all over for the springs. Still there today, almost hidden in plain sight on the side on a very busy road is a place known as the “Natural Fizzy Spring”. The aroma of sulfur hangs in the air and the water, cooler than I expected, bubbles up like a gift from the earth in what looks like a big orange spoon. A spoonful of medicine perhaps? The most unusual thing about this water is its fizziness. It was surprising, naturally fizzy and as described by another visitor, like drinking a freshly opened bottle of soda water.
Those two simple pieces of paper in the museum led me to a roadside treasure in Kamo. There really is still plenty to discover in our own backyard.
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