Six Lakes Trip

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 314, 30 August 1932, Page 8

Six Lakes Trip

The Six Lakes trip is in the nature of a luxury trip — Tikitere excepted. ( Leaving Rotorua, the road follows 1 the eastern shore of Rotorua Lako | and commands fine iews of the lake ' and Mokoia Island. The country to \ the right marks the scene of early ' native missionary enterprise, and here the first English missionaries were successful in planting hedge- j rows and wooded areas in true English landscape style. The route is in part typically English and mcrges into the weirdest and most dangerous locality in the whole of the thermal regions, for nowhere else in the world is there such an intense concentration of lieat as found at Tikitere. The hardest rock is reduced to a violently agitated molten mass, impregnated with acids, and casting oif a varicty of noxious fumes. No effort is required to picture the inferno that lies not far beneath the surface, and that finds cscape in the form of blinding steam, issuing through treachevous, seothing depths of mud. At Tikitere a guide is compulsory; the tourist is cscortcd through the labyrinth bearing such names as Holl's Gate, the Devil's j Porridgc Pot, Sodom and Gomorrah, the Devil's Roeking Chair, etc. Without a guide, Tikitere is dangerous. Passing Tikitere, Lake Rotoiti comes within view. Tlie many wooded indentations of this favourite lake, the background of busli, shcer cliffs, sequestered bays and inlets, delightful beaches, form a supcrb picture of natural beauty. Its shores are dotted with ancient Maori settlements and said to contain specimens of native carvings, tlie most faultless of their kind. Leaving Rotoiti, the car enters the famous Ilongl's Track, along which the l'ormidable warN or frequently passed and wliere still flourish the Sacrcd and the Ilangman's Tree; the liaunts of spirits whose goodwill and protection are sought to this day by Maoris passing along the track, and propitiatory of~ f erings in the shape of* wreaths and green leaves are still placed at the base of the trees. Lakes Rotoehu and Rotoma embrace scenery into which every element of beauty enters; and by the roadside between the lakes, the wonderful soda, magnesia, and iron spring is visited. The spring, sparkling and clear as crystal, is of unique curative value. Ilere the ' naturalist is in his element; the lakes and the dense bush surrounding tliem serve as a sanctuary for birds that elsewhore are becoming rare. The bittern is frcuently to be seen and the note of the kiwi heard. The road branching ofl to Lake Okataina leads for nearly five miles through magnificent native bush. Ilere the glories of New Zea'.and's primeval ■ forest and clustered fern, the habitat of the bell bird, the tui, and others whose notes attain extraordinary purity, are seen to perfection, and in an environment that for centuries has remained unchanged. Okataina I Lako has played a classical part in ( the life of the early natives. Hidden among superb bush-eovered hills, canoes moved freely across its waters to mysterious pahs and secret burial places long before the appearance of the white man; and traces of bygono history in the form of derelict pahs and burial places are still to be seen. Lake Rotokawau fills the erater of a volcano that bceame extinct ages ago. The lake has inaccessible. precipitous sides and lies lilco a gem in an amphitheatre of bush. Fisli, knowing no fear of the enemy, swarm in its quiet, unfathomable waters. t