SIX LAKES TRIP

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 3, Issue 643, 22 September 1933, Page 8

SIX LAKES TRIP

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 j here the first Hnglish missionaries j were suecessful in planting hedge- ! rows and wooded areas. Nowhere else I in the world is there sueh an intense ! concentration of heat as found at Tii kitere. The hardest rock is reduced to a violently agitated molten mass, impregnated with acids, and casting off a variety of noxious fumes. i The tourist is escorted through the labyrinth bearing sueh names I as Hell's Gate, the Devil's Por- ! ridge Pot, Sodom and Gommorrah, | the Devil's Rocking Chair, etc. With- ! out a guide, Tikitere is dangerous. j Passing Tikitere, Lake Rotoiti comes | within view. The many wooded indentations of this favourite laks, the 1 background of bush, sheer cliffs, se- ' questered bays and inlets, delightful ( beaches, form a superb picture of j natural beauty. 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. 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 iron spring is visited. The ; road branching off to Lake Okataina leads for nearly five miles through magnificent native bush. Okataina i Lake has played a classical part in the life of the early natives. Hidden among superb bush-covered hills, 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 extinct ages ago. The lake has inaecessible, precipitous sides and lies lilce a gem in an amphitheatre of bush.