SIX LAKES TRIP

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 3, Issue 675, 30 October 1933, Page 8

SIX LAKES TRIP

1 — : • : j 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 i and Mokoia Island. The country to | the right marks the scene of early j native missionary. enterprise, and : here the first English missionaries I i were successful in planting hedge- l | rows 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 i to a violently agitated molten mass, ! , impregnated with aeids, and casting 1 off a variety of noxious fnmes. " The tourist is escorted through ! the labyrinth bearing such names ' as Hell's Gate, the Devil's Por- j j ridge Pot, Sodom and ' Gommorrah, ; , the Devil's Rocking Chair, etc. With- j . 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- I : questered bays and inlets, delightful v beaches, form a superb picture of | | natural beauty. Leaving Rotoiti, the | ■ car enters the famous Hongi'e Track, j along which the formidable warrior s frequentlv passed and where still j flourish the Sacred and the Hang- { 1 man's Tree. Lakes Rotoehu and | ! Rotoma embrace scenery into j I which every element of beauty en- ! ters ; and by the roadside between the | , lakes, the wonderful soda, magnesia, ! j and iron spring is visited. Tha I road branching off to Lake Okataina S 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, canoes moved freely across its waters j to mysterious pahs and seeret burial 1 places long before the appearance i of the white man. Lake Rotokawa fills jjj | a volcano crater that became exi tinct ages ago. The lake has inae- v. i cessible, precipitous sides and lies i like a gem in an amphitheatre of jj bush.