LAKE TAUPO AWAITS YOU!

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 70, 15 December 1933, Page 25 (Supplement)

LAKE TAUPO AWAITS YOU!

•HlllllllMlllllHllllllllHllllllHlllHllillllllllllHlHtlllUllllllllilllll Beautiful Lake Taupo, New Zealand’s inland sea, has the great advantage, since it is situated right in the centre of the North Island, of being within easy access of all main centres. Roads reach he Lake at the northern and at the southern ends, and there is an excellent motor-road along the eastern shore. Taupo lies at the northern end and Tokaanu at the southern. The distance between the two places'is 3G miles. If one crosses the lake by launch, the distance is 25 miles. The world-renowned Rotorua is 55 miles away from Taupo, and Wairakei, with its celebrated Geyser Valley, but six miles away. Excellent roads lead to National Park, Taihape and Wanganui and to Napier. All the main highways of the central area of the North Island.meet at Taupo, and all of them are to-day good all-the-year-round motor-roads. From Rotorua, the present terminus of the Auckland —Hot Lakes District Railway, the distance is fifty-six miles, and during the fishing season (Ist November to 31st May), there are daily motor services running both

■llillllllllllllllllfllllllllilltlllllllllllllllllllllllllllllillllllllllllllllllll ways on this-route. From Hamilton and from Putaruru, both on the Auckland —Rotorua Railway line, motor services run both to Wairakei and Taupo. Travellers who do not wish to go via Rotorua may reach Taupo from Auckland in the day by leaving the Rotorua express at Putaruru and connecting with the Taupo motor service there. From Napier, the chief town of the Hawke’s Bay Province, on the Wellington—East Coast Trunk Railway, the distance is ninety-nine miles. Daily motor services cover this route,-which is noted for very fine mountain and bush scenery. The distance from National Park Railway Station, south of Lake Taupo, and approximately half-way between Auckland and Wellington on the Main Trunk Railway, is forty-four miles to Tokaanu. During the fishing season daily motor services, connecting with the Daylight Limited Expresses from Auckland and Wellington, run from National Park to Tokaanu, and on to Taupo and Wairakei. Travellers by this route can break their journey at the Tongariro National Park, with its great snow-clad volcanic mountains, where up-to-date accommodation is

11 HUI 111 II 111 111 illllilirilillllllllllllllllillllllllllllllllHlllHllilllllll 111 available. The road from National Park to Lake Taupo commands magnificent views of the volcanoes Ruapehu, Ngauruhoe, and Tongariro. Within the district itself transport is either by motor-car or motor-launch. Anglers wishing to move from Taupo or Wairakei to Tokaanu or the Tongariro River, or vice versa, may conveniently travel by the daily car services to National Park. All the fishing streams and localities on rhe eastern shore of the Lake are accessible by car by means of the Taupo— Tokaanu Road, or by motor-launch over the Lake. Although Lake Taupo offers all sorts of attractions, its chief one is fishing, for which it is famed both near and far. When their Royal Highnesses, the Duke and Duchess of York were in New Zealand in 1927 they indulged in fishing at Taupo and spoke in the most eulogistic terms both of the fishing and the camping facilities. Lake Taupo and its tributary streams offer the world’s best rainbow angling, in the judgment of sportsmen from widely different countries.

Convincing evidence of that rainbow pre-eminence is given in 'a booklet, “Taupo, the Angler’s Paradise,” issued in October, 1929, by the Department of Internal Affairs. Here are some passages:— “In April, 1924, a party of four rods, fishing during one night with the fly

from a boat anchored off the mouth of the Waihaha Stream (western shore of the lake), took sixty-two fish. The writer was asked to weigh these fish the following morning at Taupo, and found the aggregate weight to be 682 lb. The largest fish was 20 lb. and the smallest 7 lb.