Six Lakes Trip

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 367, 31 October 1932, Page 8

Six Lakes Trip

The Six Lakes trip is in the nature •of a luxury trip — Tikitere exeepted. Leaving Rotorua, the road follows the eastern shore of Rotorua Lake and commands fine iews of the lake and Mokoia Island. The country to the right marks the seene of early j iiative missionary ent'erprise, and here the first English missionar;es were suecessful in planting hedgerows and wooded areas in true English landscape style. The route is in part typically English and merges into the weirdest and most dangerous loeality in the whole of the thermal regions, for nowhere else in the world is there such ait intense concentration of heat as found at Tikitere. The hardest rock is reduced to a violently agitated molten mass, impregnated with acids, and casting j off a variety of noxious fumes. No ; effort is required to picture the in- | ferno that lies not far beneath the , surface, and that finds escape in the j form of blinding steam, issuing ! "through treacherous, seething depths of mud. At Tikitere a guide is eompulsory; 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 Ghair, ete. Without a guide, Tikitere is dangerous. Passing Tikitere, Lake Rotoiti eomes within view. The mar.y wooded indentations of this favourite 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 ancient Maori settlements and said to contain specimens of native earvings, the most faultless of their kind. Leaving Rotoiti, the car enters the famous Hongi's Track, along which the formidable warrior frequently passed and where still flourish the Sacred and the Hangman's Tree; the haunts of spirits whose goodwill and protection are sought to this day by Maoris passing along the track, 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 irom 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 j serve as a sanctuary for birds that elsewhere are becoming rare. The bittern is freuently to be seen and the note of the kiwi heard. The road branching off to Lake Okataina leads for nearly five miles through magnificent native bush. Here the glories of New Zealand's primeval forest and clustered ferrn, the habitat of the bell bird, the tui, and others whose notes attain extraordinary pur- j ity, are seen to perfection, and in an environment that for centuries j has rexnained unchanged. Okataina j Lake has played a classical part in ; the life of the early natives. Hidden j among superb bush-covered hills, I canoes moved freely across its waters ; to mysterious pahs and secret burial , places long before the appearance | of the wliite man; and traces of by- i gone 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 ex- j tinct ages ago. The lake has inaccessible, precipitous sides and lies : like a gem in an amphitheatre of j bush. Fish, knowing no f ear of the : enemy, swarm in its quiet, unfathomable waters.