WONDERFUL HOTORUA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13666, 6 February 1908, Page 7

WONDERFUL HOTORUA.

§^|ff;%'i'■'::'"■■ ■■ "''■"' ■■'-; ViRBANGEMENTS FOR SIGHTSEERS. . ROTORUA AS A. RESTING- , .'■ PLACE. A WONDERFUL TRIP. ■"'; HOTOMAHANA AND WAIMANGU. ;, No. in. ttr OIK spkui.u, commissioner.

fto one can visit Rotorua at the present time without being struck with the. excellent arrangements made for the convenience of sightseers and holiday-makers. Coaches and motor cars run to all points of interest. There is a fleet of motor ,d. sailing bonis on the lake, and they , re all at the service' of the visitor at a low cost.

'..-:,. The traveller is catered for by a number of transport companies, and the Tourist .Department, in. conjunction with these companies, has organised a whole series of round trips. Private parties large enough to fill motor car or coach can make any arrangement they like as to time and place,, and there are officials who visit the various ; hotels' and make up parties for any of the well-known journeys. In this way the most solitary tourist from overseas, who either cannot afford or docs not care- to make trips on his own account, can depend always on companionship and co-operation. These motoring, coaching, or boating parties bring people from all parts of the world together, and are usually very pleasant. If one were sufficiently energetic one could have a. new excursion every day with new people, -arid keep it up for a long while. The list of places within easy journey of Rotorua is almost bewildering, and the tendency is for the average person to attempt too much.

SIGHT-SEEING LABOUR. One should not look upon Rotorua sim.'•.'■'■'ply with the idea of exhausting all its wonders in one short visit,,and it is rather a "' mistake even for visitors from distant countries who think they may never see New ', Zealand again to do" too many thermal wonders. They -would bo much more 'pleased and much less tired if they had to confine their energies to only just as many "thermal wonders" as pleasure and ■' 'not duly inclines them to. i: : Rotorua, is a delightful place to rest in, and I really think that people have not appreciated ; this fact- sufficiently. The fashion is rather to look upon sight-seeing v; as upon trout-fishing, the bigger the kill the letter. Rotorua should be a* place to ccuno to again and again; but if elderly j';' : : or not. overstromj people have done the <•;> usual five or six trips a, week I could not he surprised at them never wishing to sec thermal action again. I know an Australian statesman who declares that Rotorua is one of the finest tonics in the world, and whenever ho is mm down with work '• he neither takes to doctors nor to medi- ',:'" 'cine. He just packs his bag and makes ■■: lor New Zealand and takes the' first train to Rotorua. Ho docs not try to break the record fordoing sights when he gets there. Ho just loafs and strolls iii.. the beautiful gardens, takes a course, of nerve baths, and an occasional game of bowls, does one sight a week, and half a day's trout-fish-iug, and goes back to Australia, ready, as he describes it, to jump over a sis-rail fence.- » ' . . ■ ; 'vNature has specially designed Rotorua for pleasure, recreation, and for the renewal of health, and the people who rush .' its marvellous .sights fait to appreciate it«

real benefits. Still the sights are so wonderful and the" arrangements for seeing them so excellent that one can forgive the eagerness which tries for surfeit.

: THE ROUND TRIP. v I How could one "possibly crowd more admiration, and awe and interest into one ; day than by doing the "round trip," as it is called. . There are, of course, dozens

of round trips, but the.one to which the . title is freely accorded is that which lakes one by, way of Lakes Tikitapu, Rotokakahi, j.Tarawera, Rotomahana, through Waimahgu. You make up , jour party, or the party is made up for you, and: you drive through scrub and fern country for a few miles, and then enter a beautiful ,forest. Suddenly there bursts - into view Tikitapu, surely the most brilliant lake in all the world. Its waters are the colour of turquoise matrix, with ' . varying .shades -of loveliness.' The lines : hive been likened to Tapis lazuli. They are. richer in tone, and in the shallows : where the waves ripple on the white sand beaches they are of glorious opal lines. A PAINTED, LAKE. The name Tikitapu sounds unpoetical to . European ears, bub the place is rich in Maori romance. Yet the Maoris could

~. never comprehend the marvel of this rare V -effect of nature. It would require the i imagination of an Oriental to make the ,' human mind appreciate its wonder. There should be pure white marble palaces on its shores and terraces of jade and green" ' lawns sloping from its white beaches and ' stately palms and luxuriant gardens. It ;■• is a lovely gem now hidden in a waste of , bush. Its brdliant-hued waters are only seen as one rolls by in the coach. One should be. ablo to linger over its beauty to fill oneself with the glory-of its colour- - ing. Some time, of course, man will lift the. sacred tiki from its obscurity, and make ' ,of it a tangible realisation of Arabian

' Night magnificence. , When lust I saw Tikitapu its waters were gray with the mud thrown out by that awful eruption of Tarawera; the forest £ \ trees were broken, and' bent with their 111 weight of clinging mud, the road was a irieie track winding among the recently . fallen volcanic debris, and only hardy ~' horses and hardy travellers could make ■;.•'£?;■, the journey. < -Before the coach leaves the shores of : \ I Tikitapu. one catches a glimpse of Roto"1 Wkahi, the green lake; unmistakably m ?reen, but dull in hue compared with Tiki;apu. Still, if one had not been dazzled ; -' • by the wealth of turquoise matrix, one ;:;; =oUld admire the ice-green shades and that fringe of translucent blue in the shallows. ; "l , * have not had any opportunity for study - .'''•■ iag. these coloured lakes, but I am, certain -■; that their effects vary with every change , °' sunlight and shadow, and that, under wane conditions the effects must be even . •> "3 marvellous than those I saw. «, BWKS OP THE GREAT ERUPTION.. '■■■ ' Beyond Eotokakahi there is Te Wairoa, or What littlo is left of its ruins, forVVaiV ro , a 'as literally wiped out by the eruption ,';.. tweatv-one years ago. One descends from -* coach here, and the guide points out *baw the houses were overwhelmed by - that aisful shower of mud, but if I had not - , '*** the place, in all its stark desolation,

I could scarcely believe that it had ever known the terrors of a volcanic outburst, for the whole site of the old settlement is verdant with acacias and aspens, and the new dwellings are noticeably spick and. span. '. : '

There is a tea house at Wairoa, and this reminds hie that all through the thermal districts moat excellent arrangements exist for refreshment, so that no traveller need fear hardships in this respect; besides, the hotels at Eotorua provide most generous luncheon baskets

There is a sudden drop of over seventy | feet from Tikitapu to Rotokakahi, and a greater drop still from thence to Tar.awera, : which lies but a short distance beyond . Wairoa, so that these lakes really form ; marvellous steps' leading to the most marvellous place on earth. TARAWERA. As one descends the ash slopes leading down to Tarawera one gets the first impression of the enormous effects of the eruption. The hills and the' lake shores are still gray with the material which buried Wairoa, and still covers the Maori village?, Tc Ariki and Mount,, but Nature is fast hiding the ravages it. made in that furious outburst of anger, and ferji and .scrub and grasses arc fast covering the new (surface. Evidently the volcanic material is fertile, because I saw in some places luxuriant growth of cocksfoot and clovers, and where grass seed /has been sown on the spurs of Mount .Tarawera itself is pasture better than one would get after a. good bush burn in some places. Till-; WEIRD LAKES. The Tourist Department has put a powerful, oil launch on Lake Tarawera, and in it one can make a rapid voyage in any weather. I chatted to Captain Rochfort, Who ia in charge of the launch. . He told me that trout were steadily increasing in this lake, and that several parties this season had made good takes, and that the. fish were in splendid condition. Our Minister for Labour, on his brief visit here earlier in the season, took an 11Mb fish on the fly within half a mile from the wharf, and the general average weight of fish here is over 61b. The best of the fishing does not begin, however, until later in the season, when, the trout begin to crowd into the shallow water near the mouths of the streams, and then Tarawera offers magnificent sport.' ■ . /

To fish Tarawera one, of course, must stay at Wairoa, where there is accommodation, or one may camp in some of the bays like WaitangL But camping out is no doubt the best for ardent sportsmen, and there are plenty of people in Rotorua who -will provide tents and outfit, and the cost, rarely exceeds eight shillings per day for a small party, to -which is added a few shillings per head for transport. The launch lands one on that narrow neck of land between Tarawera, and Rotomahana, and there is a short walk across the ashfields before one embarks on another launch for the most wonderful voyage that human beings can take. A little more than twenty years ago the pink and white terraces were the charms of Rotomahana, and they were well included among the wonders of the world. They lie buried now under piles of mud far below tho surface of the waters. At the time of my last visit there was no Lake Rotomahana. It was simply a great rent in the eauth, from which issued endless volumes of smoke and steam. I remember looking down on this awful chasm from the' summit of Mount Tarawera, and no stretch of imagination then could ever have enabled mc to believe that I should live to see that chasm filled ■ with milk-hued water, and that I should voyage over it with a party of light-hearted tourists. ; I confess it gave me the impression of, pro-existence" to see the • tremendous changes wrought, and yet there are people alive who remember Ilotomahana even before it was an earthquake rent.

THE WONDERS OP. ROTOMAHANA. ..'lf it were not for the summer -warmth and for, the plumed toitoi bushes scattered everywhere one could easily imagine that Rotomahana was -a fiord in some Arctic region and that the hills and slopes were everlasting snowfields, so white and grim they look, and'the razor-like ridges carved by ,rain action encourage this impression. But Rotomahana is anything but Polar in its temperature, for in some places the lake waters are literally boiling, arid from the cliffs issue furious jets 61 steam and-scald-ing streams. • One lands near .the site of the lost Pink Terrace in a veritable infernal region. The ground quivers under one's feet, hot vapours sweep in one's face,' and there is a roaring and thudding of fierce imprisoned forces, and all around the strange graywhite hills lift clean cut to the brightblue sky, and the milk-white waters ripple in, silence under the summer breeze. It is difficult to believe that one is only a fewhours' journey from a populous pleasure town. One seems to be ages removed from all human civilisation, and in one unnamed world where life is only just beginning, and where the Plutonic forces which made the framework of the hills are still at work. Look down into the deep waters of the lake arid you see them seeth-' ing and boiling. Under your feet thunders the war of fire against water. On every hand are evidences of volcanic activity, and yet it is pleasure country, and the people at your side have come over the world to enjoy the sight. 'It would bo easy for our Government to have trees planted in some of the lake bays of Tarawera or Rotomahana, to give shelter and shade, and to break the monotony of the endless white, and yet the uniqueness of the colouring is one of the charms of the place.

More cliffs wonderously painted by ~Sn- ■, tiue, more steam jet© and boiling springs, ; and then we land at what appears to be a smooth glacier among snowy mountains. It is only a water course in the ashfie'd worn by floods and a hot river, and as we toil along it the stream bed becomes more defined, and the curling steam denotes its temperature.' , Midway across this strange smooth road we, meet a- party of tourists, and among them, curiously enough, an old man who had worked by my side for months in a certain beautiful tropical island. He went on to . Rotomahana, we went on to Waimangu, for that hot stream which we have followed is still partly fed from what was until recently the largest geyser in the world. Although the forces which hurled literally a lake of boiling water hundreds of feet in the air nave quietened down, Waimangu is still a wonderful place.. The old crater, once filled always with nearly three acres of boding water, is nearly levelled up with-sand, over which one can walk, but in fear and trembling, for there seems to be but a thin crust covering, but not imprisoning, the thermal forces. Areas are covered with shallow boiling pools, through which steam rushes with a terrific hissing sotmd. To the largest of these areas has been given the name of Frvingpan, which, like many other names in the same district, if not poetical, is descriptive. Some scores of feet below the lip of Waimangu is rush- ! ing hot river fed by boiling waterfalls. Altogether Waimangu is a marvellous place and forms a fitting contrast to the still more marvellous lake voyages, and a fitting conclusion to the most wonderful day's trip that. the world can , offer, for the drive from thence into Rotorua-.does not count after such eight-seeing^ : , '