Wairakei-Napier

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 310, 25 August 1932, Page 8

Wairakei--Napier

The Wairakei-Napier Road is an | important link in the main highway between Rotorua, Palmerston, and Wellington. It can be safely nego- j tiated in all weathers, and is now j the favourite route for motorists j journeying north or south. Leaving J Wairakei the road passes through Taupo and along the shores of the lake until it begins the climb toward Opipi, 2,000 feet above sea level. j By degrees the car passes out of the region of thermal activity, though as a reminder an occasional hot spring is to be seen. Immense boulders and pumice rocks lie strewn about the country, bearing eloquent testimony to the mighty volcanic upheavals of past ages. The journey is enlivened by two great ascents to the top of Taurangakoua, then down into the valley of the Mohaka ; Riverland up again to the Titiokura Saddle, 1,200 feet above ^ the Mohaka. From these high altitudes uninterrupted views of rugged and magnificent country are to be had, the perspective on all sides fading mto • the far distance. The final descent brings the traveller into the rich sheep country of Hawke's Bay. Hand-c-rvm o and snacious homesteads, em-