Along the Roads

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23275, 18 February 1939, Page 8 (Supplement)

Along the Roads

AT TIKITERE T)EAR ANNE SHIRLEY, —We have been away for a camping holiday. We went to Rotorua, and while there we visited Tikitere, and it was wonderfnl. When wo went there we had to have a pair of dark glasses each, because trie pumico was so glaring to tho eyes. There was one place where the guide put a penny into a substance and when lie took it out, the money was a greenish colour. Then in another place the ground shook underneath our feot. Our guide showed us a place where there was a pool, and Daddy said the water tasted like lemonade. Only the men were allowed to go down, because they had to cross some rocks over a warm pool. We also went to the Fairy Springs and tho rainbow trout were so big. Some of them were not swimming about in the water; they were just lying still. Later we went on to Ohope Beach and we had rides on the waves with a little lilo. I shall tell you some more about my holiday another time. —With love from Madeleine Mortimer (9), Mount Eden.

Dear Anno Shirley.—We have just finished stacking our hay, so Dad suggested going for a trip in the car "to blow awav the smell of the hay," so off we went, dressed in summer best, the day being very hot and sultry. As the road was pumice, great clouds of dust rose behind us, and the trees and plants growing beside the road and on the banks were white with the dust. Soon the town was left behind, and we entered the "bark blocks." Here and there small homesteads could be seen amid trees and garden shrubs, surrounded with the green hillsides, from which the bush had recently been felled. Many blackened tree-stumps and trunks were scattered over the paddocks, where sheen and cows were grazing peacefully. There was one beautiful house with a well-kept lawn and flower gardens in just such a surrounding, while further back the'native bush still stood, dark and mysterious.

A few miles further on all "was bush, and the road was bordered with the golden ragwort, which smelt very pleasant, even though it is a weed and a pest. By this time wo were 111 National Park,,on the new which is being constructed to Lake Tan no. We found the road to be on a ridge with deep, tree-covered gorges on either side. The air was beautifully cool here, and perfumed with the delightful smell of the sun-kissed forest. The mountains looked ghostly in the hazy cloud that enveloped them. Now and then we passed the P.W. camps, and at the last one was the tractor used in the making of the road. We came, at length, to the end or the road, where it was necessary to turn the car homeward. When the road branched Ave took to the main road and saw many fishing and swimming parties beside every stream. Ihe plum trees wera bowed down with the ripe fruit, and many little Maori children were enjoying themselves as they played beneath the trees. ijoesn't driving make one drowsy? By the time we arrived home we were quite sleepy, but after a nice hot cup of tea wo settled down to work once more. Next time we follow_ that road we will be able to go straight on to Taupo. —Yours sincerely, Boso Ralph (17), M.8.G., Taumaranui.

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