Wairakei-Napier

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 319, 5 September 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 negotiated in all weathers, and is now the favourite route for motorists journeying north or south. Leaving 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. 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 Taurangakuma, then down into the valley of the Mohaka River, and 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 into the far . distance. The final descent brings the ti'aveller into the rich sheep country of Ilawke's Bay. Handsome and spacious homesteads, embodying modern ideas of comfort and luxury, furnish evidence of the great wealth of the district. A run of several miles along the sea coast leads into the progressive and picturesque town of Napier.