SIX LAKES TRIP

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 3, Issue 623, 30 August 1933, Page 8

SIX LAKES TRIP

! " i The Sjx Lakes trip is in the nature j of a luxury trip — Tikitere excepted. j Leaving Rotorua, the road follows ■ the eastern shore of Rotorua Lake ' and commands fine views of the lake j and Mokoia Island. The country to ! the right marks the scene of early native missionary enterprise, and here the first English missionaries | were successful in planting hedge- g rows and wooded areas. Nowhere else • in the world is there such an intense r concentration of heat as found at Ti- r kitere. The hardest rock is reduced * to a violently agitated molten mass, 2 impregnated with acids, and casting ^ off a variety of noxious fumes. The tourist is escorted through 1 the labyrinth bearing such names I as Hell's Gate, the Devil's Por- | ridge Pot, Sodom and Gommorrah, the Devil's Rocking Chair, etc. With- jf out a guide, Tikitere is dangerous. Passing Tikitere, Lake Rotoiti comes • within view. The many wooded indentations of this favourite lake, the background of bush, sheer cliffs, se- 1j questered bays and inlets, delightful ,C beaches, form a superb picture of natural beauty. Leaving Rotoiti, the i car enters the famous Hongi's Track, * along which the formidable wam'or . \ frequently passed and where still ! flourish the Sacred and the Hang- g man's Tree. Lakes Rotoehu and , Rotoma embrace scenery into | which every element of beauty en- | ters ; and by the roadside between the | lakes, the wonderful soda, magnesia, *• and iron spring is visited. Th« road branching off to Lake Okataina leads for nearly five miles through magnificent native bush. Okataina Lake has played a classical part in ; the life of the early natives. Hidden 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 white man. Lake Rotokawa fills a volcano crater that became ex- j tinct ages ago. The lake has inac- ; cessible, precipitous sides and lies like a gem in an amphitheatre of j bush. t