Celebrating our Blog's 5th Birthday

Celebrating our Blog

It’s our 5^th birthday.

We (me mostly) started this blog as a way to share Rotorua’s rich history with our community in an easy-to-read online format.

After a steep learning curve, I got quite good at thinking up topics [or eras] to cover each month and proceeded to research each topic. That was the easy bit as Rotorua Library has a comprehensive collection of books, ephemera, early Rotorua maps, Don Stafford’s Research folders, the early Rotorua newspapers and the Rotorua Photo News. 

Rotorua’s history has been very well documented for us in both photographs and the many stories of those early intrepid explorers and missionaries.

To celebrate our 5^th birthday the Heritage and Research team have picked out some posts to highlight and share with you.

From me a couple of topics I enjoyed writing about the most was the early [Royal visitors] and all about Rotorua’s Beauty Pageants. I hope our readers will continue to enjoy our blog and tell all your friends about it too.  Alison

Click the links to these blog posts : 
Rotorua Street Names Disappear 

This map was published in a
brochure for tourists c1940

Rotorua Transport Companies of Yesteryear

c1910 Map of  Hot Lakes Transport Co. Trips around Rotorua.
From the Rotorua District Library Collection

 NZ Music Month : Sir Howard Morrison

From the Clive Trio to the Howard Morrison Show
in Rotorua Photo News Jul 31, 1965 p.33.

 Christmas in Rotorua 

Rotorua Library - our first Christmas Parade Float
Joanne Hatcher and Mary Ellen Wilson

Rotorua's Arty Makeovers 

Fish out of Water : Princess Fishy 2016

Please enjoy our blog posts and let us know what you liked and maybe some topics you would like us to cover in the future.