Scenic Splendours of Taupo

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 72, 17 December 1937, Page 25 (Supplement)

Scenic Splendours of Taupo

VARIETY OF PLACES OF INTEREST Lake Shores Variety of Sceiies POPULARITY INCREASING The words "trout fishing" are ' alniost synonymouB to New Zealanders with Taiupo, but Taupo has more to offer than fishing, and it isfor this reason that the place has gained an ever-increasing popularity with the holiday-seeking public. Thennal activity, baths, bathing in the limpid waters of the labe> tennis, golf, boating, scenery

beautiful in its ruggedness, and the pureness of the very air which is breathed are but a few of the factors which have made Taupo such a delightful playground. During the past decade Taupo has grown from a scattered village to a thrivmg township where lake-front sections for building purposes are at a premium and intending house-ownqrs there have had to seek sites further and further away from the shores of the lake. Taupo's' is a constantly changing population during. the height of the summer season, and this is' due in a large measur© to motorists who make it a halting-place in large numbers, some to stay bufi a night before hastening on to fresh fields and others to remain for a period. The climbing of the broad bulk of Mount Tauhara, which lies at the back of the town is a popular diversion, and trom its summit may be obtained a magnificent panorama of silvery slake with bush-clad sides, rolling hills bearing a variety of native and imported flora and on the Napier side- the flat expanse of the Taupo plains. The lake itself, particularly on a clear sunny day, is a magnificent spectacle. This wonderful inland sea is 241 square miles in area, with a length of 25 miles. a^width of 17 miles and a depth of 534 feet. Hot mineral baths with a wide va-

riety of mineral content and heat are within easy ac'cess of the town and there are an inereasing number of redents who are installing their own private baths, so plentiful is the supply of the necessary water. Wairakei, five miles on the Rotorua side of Taupo, is where people go to see thermal activity of all sorts concentrated into a comparatively small area. The geyser valley has much weird thermal activity. These mysteries of nature include the dragon'"s mouth, the devil's inkpot, the paddlewheel, the eagle's next geyser, the

"tame" Prince of Wales Feathers geyser which can he made to play at will and a hundred other weird tricks of nature. The Aritiatia rapids, a little further on the Rotorua road; from Wairakei, present a magnificent spectacle. Here may be seen from many vantage points the mighty waters of the Waikato tumbling over the rock-strewn riverbed, and at the same time may be seen, ti one looks closely, the trout* fighting their way np stream. The Huka Falls, just outside Taupo, is a'nother favoured sightseeing place, and here again the Waikato may be seen surging majestically through a narrow rockrbonnd

channel, finally plunging over * drop of 30 feet into a seething cauldroa below. The scenic splendoUrs of tho outlying portions of th© lake viewed from the launches which make frequent tripa are to be seen to be fully appreciated. The Western Boys present ever-chang-ang scenes of massive grandeur, the sheer several-hundred-feet-high cliffs dropping down into the clear watera of the lake are awe inspiring in their massiveness as the launches chug complacently at their foot in search of the elusive trout. Here and there the cliffs fall back and give place t-o valleys

once inhabited by Maoris, whose habi* tations are still in existence, the sandy beaches making ideal picnic pla#es. There are such delightful little coveg as Gherry Bay "tucked away amid ths cliffs and here one may laze ajvhile amidi idyllic surr,oundings. The lake shores have truly many and diverse places of interest and one gets a feeling something akin to that of the explorers of old when making a tonr by b.oat. Taui>o has much to commend it from the holiday point of view and there is little wonder that year by year thf number of its visitors ia eontinually inereasing.