Rotorua, New Zealand: Government Gardens

The Government Gardens might be the best part of downtown Rotorua. They are located right on the lake in this city on the North Island of New Zealand. There's plenty of green space available for various activities, and there are small sculptures and monuments scattered around the grounds. 

Take, for example, this piece of art work. You have to look at this backwards in a sense, and see what the missing space depicts. You'll eventually see a World War I soldier. Daniel Pepper of South Africa did the work on this. It was part of a series of works on the human condition. I'm not sure what happened to the "water" behind the statue. But I didn't hop into it for a quick dip.

The gardens also contain a big Tudor building that's something of a museum. An adjoining building has something called "The Blue Baths." This was one of the first places in the world to allow men and women to share a public bath at the same time.