"DOING" ROTORUA.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIX, Issue 73, 29 March 1910, Page 8

"DOING" ROTORUA.

10 XHE EDITOR. Sir, — With your permission I would tike to give my fellow-workers in the Empire City and elsewhere, through the medium of your journal, particulars of a little trip my wife and I and «i party had to Auckland, via Rotorua. I would advise any of my fellow-workers who can raise, s.ay, £12 per head to get round the "soft-side" ot their employer at their earliest convenience, and spend a fortnight at New Zealand's Wonderland. Your first impressions on trespassing among the hot pools and boiling mudholes, etc., are that it is not very far from "down below," and that the ground is very like a pie-crust, and might very easily break. After a while, however, the scared feeling gives way to a feeling of intense curiosity and interest. The little Maori children diving (feel foremost in most cases) for pennjes and other coins would interest yon for hours at a time^ — their purses for their rather large stock of coins were usually inside their mouths, which on occasions bulged to an alarming extent. The baths are fitted up in splendid style, and are fit for a king, let alone an ordinary worker, on production of the small fee of one shilling. The sights and wonders of Rotorua are such that they cannot with justice be described on paper. All I '-•an -advise readeis of your paper to do is" to go and see for themselves — the trip would be of life-long remembrance. I was elected secretary of our party of five, and for about £12 (an average of about a pound a day) we practically had the time of our lives. Roughly, our expenses totalled up somewhat in the following fashion : — A week at Rotorua and •» - week at Auckland; tickets to Rotorua, £3 lls lOd ; afternoon tea in train, Is ; tea, 4s ; bed and breakfast (Taumariitiui), 6s; tea at Te Awamutu, Ls ; tea, Matamata, Is ; carting luggage, .Rotorua. ls ; gate, tea, and coach to aud from Whakarewarewa, ss , blue bath, 6d ; lake trip (Harmaraua spring, Okere, and Tikiteie), £1 4s; guide, 2s; toll and tea at Okere, 2s ; toll and guide, 4s ; tea Tikiteie, 2s; Duchess bath (twice), 4s; round trip Wairoa and Wnimangu, £1 15s ; tea at Wairoa and Waimangu, ls ; blue bath, Is; Duchess bath, 2s-, 'bus to and from Taumarunui, 2s ; also bed, tea, and breakfast at latter place, 9s; throwing pennies to Maori children, Is 6<l; board (excellent) at Rotorua for vf.ek, £3 16s. These items are, of course, for two persons. The fare (double) to Auckland was £1 8s Bd, aud th* daily expenses, board, etc., averaged a ponnd * day. I hope my effort at description will do good, in that it will be the means of many more enjoying Nature's wondrous sights as our •arty did.— l am, etc., FREDERICK WILLIAM. .Wellington 28th March, 1910.