Six Lakes Trip

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 336, 24 September 1932, Page 8

Six Lakes Trip

The Six Lakes trip is in the nature of a luxury trip — Tikitere excepted. j Leaving Rotorua, the road follows ' i the eastern shore of Rotorua Lake 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 suecossful in planting hedge- j rows and wooded areas in true Eng- j lish landscape style. The route is j in part typically English and merges ! into the weirdest and most dangerous locality in the whole of the ther- . mai regions, for nowhere else in the 1 world is there such axi intense con- j . centration of heat as found at Tiki- j / here. The hardest rock is reduced ; to a violently agitated molten mass, ' impregnated with acids, and casting off a variety of noxious fumes. No eifort is required to picture the inferno that lies not far beneath the surface, and that finds escape in the form of blinding steam, issuing through treacherous, seething depths of mud. At Tikitere a guide is compulsory ; the tourist is escorted through the labyrinth bearing such names as Hell's Gate, the Devil's Porridge Pot, Sodom and Gomorrah, the Devil's Rocking Chair, etc. Without a guide, Tikitere is dangerous. Passing Tikitere, Lake Rotoiti comes within view. The mary wooded indentations of this fatourite lake, the background of bush, sheer cliffs, sequestered bays and inlets, delightful beaches, form a superb picture of natural beauty. Its shores are dotted with aneienc Maori settlements and said to contain specimens of native carvings, the most faultless of their lcind. Leaving Rotoiti, the car

enters the famous Hongl's Trade, j along which the formidable warrior j frequently passed and wliere still j flourish the Sacred and the Hang- 1 man's Tree; the haunts of spirits whose goodwill and protection are sought to this day by Maoris passing along the traclc, and propitiatory offerings 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. Here the naturalist is in his element; the lakes and the dense bush surrounding them serve as a sanctuary for birds that elsewhere are becoiring rare. The bittern is freuently 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. Here the glories of New Zealand's primeval forest and clustered fern, the habitat of the bell bird, the tui, and others whose notes attain extraordinery purity, are seen to perfection, and in an environment that for centuries has remained unchanged. Okataina Lake has played a classical part in the life of the early natives. Hidden among superb bvsh-covered 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 bygone history in the form of derelict pahs and burial places are still to be seen. Lake Rotokawau fills the crater of a volcano that became extinct ages ago. The lake has inaccessible, precipitous sides and lies like a gem in an amphitheatre of bush. Fish, knowing no fear of the enemy, swarm in its quiet, unfathomable waters.