SIX LAKES TRIP

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 553, 9 June 1933, Page 8

SIX LAKES TRIP

j The Six Lakes trip is in the nature jj of a luxury trip — Tikitere excepted. Leaving Rotorua, the "road follows J the eastern shore of Rotorua Lake ' and commands fine views of the lake U | and Mokoia Island. The country to the right marks the scene of early native missionary enterprise, and ^ | here the first English missionaries j were successful in planting hedge- j rows and wooded areas. Nowhere else j in the world is there such an intense I concentration of heat as found at Ti- = 1 kitere. The hardest rock is reduced ; ' to a violently agitated molten mass, l J impregnated with acids, and casting off a variety of noxious ftunes. I The tourist is escorted through ! the labyrinth bearing such names j j as Hell's Gate, the Devil's Por- j ridge Pot, Sodom and Gommorrah, j ! the Devil's Rocking Chair, etc. With1 out a guide, Tikitere is dangerous. j Passing Tikitere, Lake Rotoiti comes | within view. The many wooded indentations of this favourite lake, the i background of bush, sheer cliffs, se1 questered bays and inlets, delightful beaches, form a superb picture of , natural beauty. Leaving Rotoiti, the I car enters the famous Hongi's Track, I along which the formidable warrior 1 frequentlv passed and where still flourish the Sacred and the Hangman's Tree. Lakes Rotoehu and Rotoma embrace seenery into j which every element of beauty en- : ters; and by the roadside between the j lakes, the wonderful soda, magnesia, i I and iron spring is visited. The j road branching off to Lake Okataina leads for nearly five miles through ! magnificent native bush. Okataina j Lake has played a classical part in j the life of the early natives. Hidden j among superb bush-covered hills, canoes moved freely across its waters to mysterious pahs and secret burial places long before the appearance I of the white man. Lake Rotokawa fills j a volcano crater that became extinct ages ago. The lake has inacI cessible, precipitous sides and lies like a gem in an amphitheatre of bush.