SIX LAKES TRIP

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 3, Issue 627, 4 September 1933, Page 8

SIX LAKES TRIP

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