SCENIC WONDERS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20063, 9 October 1939, Page 6

SCENIC WONDERS

COAST HIGHWAY ALL-WEATHER ROUTE READY FOR CHRISTMAS Miles of scenic wonders, including innumerable beautiful land and seascapes, will be opened up to Christmas traffic with the establishment of the East Coast scenic highway, via Cape Runaway, as an all-weather road. The Gisborne-Cape Runaway-Opotiki-Waioeka Valley - Gisborne round trip of 300 miles is now available to motorists as a pleasant weekend jaunt. The resident A.A. patrol, Mr. G. V. Merton, completed the journey during the week-end to compile data and have information available for tourists in the coming holiday season. He found the road surface in splendid order and did not have to slow down once on account of adverse conditions. Developments Appreciated Developments on the road will be appreciated greatly by the farming communities scattered along the route as rising rivers will not now prevent them from getting their cream supplies to the factories for many days on end, which was often the case in the past. Tourists also will benefit because of the new selection of rugged panoramas that has been made available and a trip around the Coast will present to them scenery of a type unequalled in New Zealand. Flying spindthrift is flung into the winds by the force of the Pacific Ocean combers as they crash on to the massive jagged rocks that fringe the shores of the coast. Behind that is the placid contrast of the small farming communities with their cattle grazing on the pohutukawa-studded green pastures. Speaking of the condition of the road now compared with its state a year ago, the Public Works Department foreman at Wlianarua, Mr. J. M. J. Carroll, said that it was now an all-weather route from Opotiki to Waihau Eay. The remaining creeks that would no.t be bridged by Christmas were ones that rose quickly and would not be in flood for more than an hour or two.. The cuttings were not high enough and the country was now so stable as to remove the possibility of .serious slips. At the foot of the Maraenui Hill the cuttings might give a small measure of trouble for a short time. Many Bridges Finished Since last Christmas bridges have been erected and opened up to traffic * at Whangaparaoa, Mangatoetbe, Waiokaha, Te Waiti, Maraehako, Waikawa, Paikarenui, Waikanae, and Waikanae Factory, and culverts at Tauranga and near the Te Kaha school. There # was a need for bridges, for which tenders have been called, at Torere, and long fillings are being made to take the road inland slightly away from the beach and from the reach of stormy seas at that point. The main work bn the highway at present is the widening of the bluffs at the Waikawa Stream bridge, the construction .of a coastal road to shorten the Maraenui Hill route Rnd detour it from a previously dangerous section that has been the scene , of one or two accidents, and the easing back Of the bluffs as the road rises on the Opotiki side of the Motu River. In all cases the road surface is being widened and should make travelling enjoyable even to the normally nervous motorists.

Residents said that there was an unbelievable increase last summer in the number of tourists using the road compared with previous years. Many more tourists would be expected now that their fears of the possibility of being marooned had been removed by the bridging of the rapidly-rising floodwater streams.