LURE OF THE LAKE DISTRICT

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 408, 17 December 1932, Page 16

LURE OF THE LAKE DISTRICT

WHY NOT PAY A VISIT ? I HOT SPRINGS, BEAUTIFUL LAKES AND BUSH-CLAfil * MOUNTAINS I CHEAP AND COMFORTABLE R AIL JQUM At this happy season of the year when most people are making up their minds asto^J spend the Christmas holidays thought should he given to the facilities provided hy the Railil ment for yisiting Rotorua. By using the national railways holiday-makers can not only jourcj but in the greatest comf ort; The trains, eihter from W ellington or Auckland, will take them tliroJ the richest and most beautiful country in the Dominion. The distance from Auckland to Franhj five miles, and from Wellington 341 miles. The great scenic attraction of the route from WellhJ Waikato-Rotorua junction is the section between the Upper Rang'itikei and Taumarunui, at ti navigation of the Wanganui River. Here the railway closely approaches the base of Mt. Kuapp'j glaciated peak of the North Island, and there are views of Ngauruhoe volcano and other vrondo:J of the Tongariro National Park. Nearer the jonrney's end the glories of the Mamaku F orest J and the clirnax comes with the view of Lake Rotorua, her myriad ripples sparkling beneatli t'fJ i sun. • I

In the old days — not so long ago 1 but that they are still well within one's memory — there was a day's hor.seeoach travel from the rail head at Cambridge, in the Waikato, or from the little port of Tauranga. Nowadays the run to Lakeland is as speedy and pleasant and safe as technical science can make it. Perhaps there was more of strangeness and enchantment about this amazing part of New Zealand in the pre-railway era than there is to-day, for those who enjoy roughing it, and who like to skirmish ahead of the tourist. But the discomforts and the cost disconraged most people. It was difficult to get about the country; the accommodation was primitive. For years after the foundation of the State township1 on the southern, shore i of the famous like, the Geyser country was, in 'effeet, reserved for a few people with leisure and money. The coming of the railway changed all that. The year 1894 saw the completion of the Government rail line linking up Rotorua with Auckland and the outside world, and this revolutionised travel, set the builders of hotels and boardinghouses and shops to work, set shipbuilders turning out steam launches for the lakes, and made a Lakeland tour a pleasure for the multitude.

; Always Something New. j Nowadays the New Zealander has j | little excuse for not paying the Roto- i I rua-Taupo region a visit — indeed, a ; ! visit year after year. For no matter \ how many times one has trained it to | the lakes and g»eysers (says Mr. James % Cowan in a recent article) there is & always something new to see; and 1 there is always something of the j charm of hreaking into a magic land a as well as a land of beauty. For all 1* the changes and luxuries that time J has brought to the. place, a vast deal | !| of the olden enchantment .remains, I and Nature has a w^y of asserting | herself in unexpected forms now and g again hy way of reminding mere man | that she, after all, is supreme. - | A recent overseas visitor to New' | Zealand gave it as his opinion that | our Geyssrland was more interestin'g I than the. famous Yellowstone .Park. | Though New Zealand's geyser country $ was smaller, he said, that very ' f act | was an advantage rather than a draw- . Ihack. In.the Rotorua region the traveller found one wonder after another i ■ in quick succession, and the impres- • sion of the \vhole was more lasting. ' | The Way to Wonderland. - I Branching off from the North Island Main Trunk Railway at Franki ton Junction- (85 miles from Auckland and 341 miles from Wellington), the line to Rotorua traverses a part of the Waikato- v> aihou Plain, and crosses the Mamaku f orest range to the lakes and geyser country, a distance of 86 miles. This part of the journey to Rotorua takes four hours, and those four' hours are full of interest all the way; rail travel in this part of New Ze.aland is the reverse of monotonous. The Matamata Plain, with its business centre at Matamata town (37 miles from Frankton) . is a place of r marvellously rapid {developmhnt,

wholly th'e result of the profitable dairying country. This grass country feeds a eow to the acre all the year round. Here, at Waharoa — named after the great warrior chief who was Tamehana's father — is the largest dairy produce factory in New Zealand, and, in fact, in the world. Putaruru, 18 miles beyond Matamata, is a junction of roads and railway. Here is. the nearest car route to the great Arapuni hydroelectrieal worlcs on the Waikato River. To this Mamaku station the line climbs hy a winding way, through deep rock cuttings and over great embankments. A vast forest once covered all this hroken tableland, the highast part of the Hautere plateau that extends from the Tauranga Ranges to the Patetere Plains. A railside fringe of the woods has fortunately heen saved, and this helt of bush, with its graceful drooping rimu, its rata, its kahikatea and tawa, and its wild parks of fern-tnees, is a cool, fragrant, eye-rafreshing cuidhin of foliage that too quickly lifts as the train mounts the summit. First Glimpse of Lakeland. It is through a hreak in the bush, soon after leaving Mamaku, leaciing out ihto a vista of ferny hills. and gullies, that the train passenger sees, on his riglit hand, but far below, a

] blue lake glistening in the westering sun. This lake filis the middle of a j shallow basin, which is, from rhn | to rim, fifteen to twenty miles across. The rim of the basin are soft blue fringes of varied outline, wooded in most places to the skyline... The land on nearly every side slopes down gracefully and gradually to the Ievel shores. Far below there are well-grassed farms where once there was nothing but manuka scrub and fern and tutu bushes. There are plantations of exotic trees, and gardens, alternating with grey stretches of. manuka. A massive mountain partly hlocks the view, slanting in long and shapely lines of rest to the manuka levels. This is Ngongotaha*. "Th'e Mountain of the Fairies" in Maori legend. The soft blue lake is Rotorua — "Double Lalce," as it was called by the earliest Maori explorer, who first caught sight of it f i*om a viewpoint which showed it apparently divided in two. In the middle of the lake isits a foliated island, Mokoia, of romantic memory. It rounds off and completes this peaceful water-sheet with a . delicious harmony. Sometimc-s on a day of cairn and soft thin gauzy haze it seems up'lifted in airy spaee. against the round plate of shimmering water, the blue island of a dream. Again, its wooded slopes and outjutting ' rockfaees are all glowing in the gold of a gorgeous sunset, 'or it rests there in dark purples deepened by evening distances, and the meditative shadows, as you may often see it from the incoming train. * . Looking for Geysers. But just now everyone is looking for geysers and steam clouds, and though' huge puia are not seen sponting on the lake shores, there are little fieeey jets of vapour far away, rising'from

the waterside thicfciiK other side of the lakeH Steam rests on of Tikitere's great fas* wha. Everything is a map below, for seventeen hundred :';fl level, and eight hun:-B Rotorua lake. AtTarB there is a full and 'ti'K ture of the Rotorua h feast of colour andfeB tain and forest blentB "a thing fmely poisdiB deur and gentleness,'1 * Rotoiti's Chw Beyond the white B Itotorua's eastern sfeH like chalk in the sun.i'K of another lake, Eoto'tl bays, and the indigoraj poungakau and the h'9 Matawhaura iuountai:B far eastern skyh'ne, G Little beaches glfeH lake is streaked and and veins like the ict:H escent pave i hcdl, an:K two and flitting* moteH life to the waters of « Here and there belcvH and levels are sofclv elled with the grassyiB 'as' a gi'eat lover cf ;':l wrote of Belvoir Ys!:B

"gloriotts and h-a u ■ , i invc-*-eonseious -aaa which patimt hun^ upon the canvas paint-brush of cmg only a portion oi Grey and dominant colour?; . ' - and range-liffibing j componc-nts of Ihe ' this great saueer ® . try. Soon all tl«^; covered with steads 'and ordiai^D then the bidling ^ pools and siutei' • cliffs will seem ful by contrast. In Geyser^5' Soon the train Jj erossing nowuad3^. twisting downfronj; low hanks clothe^ flax bushes, and a sniff of sulfhuW Y : clear brook is cr0;:^ | glimpse of steai®1®, [ in white vapour- ' 1 the sulpliurous re| t 1 memory. It ^ J j token of a curio®3 Y i some on a first adr | ed with a greeting J- ! of absence. i the Geyser CounttE j tomed to the PuDY ' sulphur spring3' a ' ' 1 it, as the nativcs ' I tolerant of rnany _ j strange, and s famous place w , ceives his first J ^ , the nose. HoY^A tent • odours' oi have their uses. 6 that rises throUgH '' and solfataras in j scrub or- in the la ,j pflrpp.f.n?i.llv to