SIX LAKES TRIP

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 3, Issue 697, 24 November 1933, Page 8

SIX LAKES TRIP

The Six Lakes trip is in the nature of a luxury trip — Tikitere excepted. I Leaving Rotorua, the road follows the eastern ahore 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 English missionaries ; were successful in planting hedge- ; rows and wooded areas. Nowhere else j I in the world is there such an intense 1 concentration of heat as found at Tif kitere. The hardest rock is reduced 1 i to a violently agitated molten mass, l ■ hnpregnated with acids, and casting jj ! off a variety of noxious fumes. j The tourist is escorted through , the labyrinth bearing such names ; as Hell's Gate, the Devil's Porj ridge Pot, Sodom and Gommorrah, , the Devil'o Rocking Chair, etc. With- ; out a guide, Tikitere is dangerous. J Passing Tikitere, Lake Rotoiti comes { I within view. The mary wooded in- I dentations of this favourite lake, the j ; background of bush, sheer cliffs, se- • questered bays and inlets, delightful beaches, form a superb picture of natural beauty. Leaving Rotoiti, the car enters the famous Hongi'a Track, j along which the formidable warrior frequently pass'ed and where still \ j flourish the Sacred and the Hang- | man's Tree. Lakes Rotoehu and l ■ > Rotoma embrace scenery - into which every element of beauty en- j ters ; and by the roadside between the i 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 j ^ the life of the early natives. Hidden : among superb bush-covered hills, ' canoes moved freely across its waters [ to mysterious pahs and secret burial | i places long before the appearance of the white man. Lake Rotokawa fills a volcano crater that became extinct ages ago. The lake has inac- * j cessible, precipitous sides and lies like a gem in an amphitheatre of bush. !