ENJOYABLE MOTOR TRIP

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 9, Issue 521, 9 April 1920, Page 1

ENJOYABLE MOTOR TRIP

BY LOCAL RESIDENTS, Mr. and Mrs Hubert Fulton and Miss Fulton have recently returned from a very enjoyable three weeks' motor tour'to Taranaki. They travelled bv wav <>f To Kuiti and Mokau. and thus had to negotiate the famous Taumatamiri and Mount Messenger. These reputedly formidable mountains, however, are not by any means dilticult, unless very wet weather is met with. The round trio, by way of Palmerston North, Napier and Taupo, nad to be abandoned owing to the uncertainty of procuring benzine on the wav.

Mr. Fulton says that perhaps the most enjoyable feature ol this holiday was'the delight of motoring on the Taranaki roads, hundreds of miles of which are tar-sealed, the surface being cleaner and apparently smoother than Station Street. In their travels oven the great dairying province they passed through four out of the seven tollgates that exist: tolls ranging from 2s 6d to 3s Gd for a five-seater car. It is over Iweny years since Mr. Fulton visited Taranaki, and he is greatly impressed with the progress made during that time. The dairying industry lias made for closer settlement. good s'oads. bolter farming, and hotter cows.

One of the host trips made by the party was 'around Mount Egniont, through Opii!iak.\ Hawera, Kith am and Stratford- and on this trip they were accompanied by Mr. N. Fulton, of the Dairy Department of Agriculture. The lv/iTnc '■ us large cheese factories pasM'l on the way are striking evidence o!' the extent of the cheese industry. A very interesting two hours w'o spent at Kaupokonui, which is admitted to be the largest dairying concern in the world. The buildings and plant at this place cover at least five cores of ground, and include, oT course, the co-operative store, but space will not permit for a fuller description rf this great concern, which is owned and managed by farmers.

Dairy farms on the Waimate Plains are now selling from £BO to (.180 per acre, according to quality, improvements and location. A prominent feature of the plains is the hundreds (probably thousands) of miles of big African boy-thorn hedges. No other hedge plant will stand the salt spray that accompanies the frequent"southerly busters" peculiar to the West Coast.

Mr. R. Fulton recommends all Taranaki visitors to take the "round-tho-mountain" motor trip, and to ascend the water-tower at Hawera to obtain a most wonderful and delightful rmal panorama; and also to be sure and visit the Ngaire gardens. The Pukekura Park. Frankley Park, and other well-known beauty spots of New Plymouth would be visited and enjoyed in any case. The return journey was made from New Plymouth to Waitomo Caves the first night, a distance of l'.-fj miles. The caves are a sight well worth seeing.

The party was fortunate in having line weather during the whole of the time, and equally fortunate in having no tyre punctures and no mechanical troubles at any stage of the journey, which speaks for itself of the latest six-cylinder Oldsmobile oar.