SIX LAKES TRIP

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 3, Issue 671, 25 October 1933, Page 8

SIX LAKES TRIP

The Six Lakes trip is in the nature j of a luxury trip — Tikitere excepted. ' Leaving Rotorua, the road follows 1 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 English missionaries ' were successful in planting hedgeI rows and wooded areas. Nowhere else in the world is there such an iptense 1 concentration of heat as found at Tikitere. The hardest rock is reduced to a violently agitated molten mass, impregnated with acids, and casting i off a variety of noxious fumes. The tourist is escorted through 1 the labyrinth bearing such names as Hell's Gate, the Devil's Porridge Pot, Sodom and Gommorrah, | the Devil's Rocking Chair, etc. Without a guide, Tikitere is dangerous. j Passing Tikitere, Lake Rotoiti comes j within view. The macy wooded indentations of this favourite lake, the ! background of bush, sheer cliffs, sei questered bay3 and inlets, delightful j beaches, form a superb picture of j natural beauty. Leaving Rotoiti, the car enters the famous Hongi's Track, j 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, j 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 nativeB. 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 inaci cessible, precipitous sides and lies ! like a gem in an amphitheatre of i bush. ,