LAKE WAIKAREMOANA.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 10140, 29 August 1904, Page 4

LAKE WAIKAREMOANA.

Regarding tho tourist traffic to Lake Waikaremoana, it is stated that the opening of a first-class accommodation house at the lake greatly .increased its popularity as a holiday resort; The new oil launch, Kohurangi, placed on the lake to enable visitors to make excursions, greatly added to the attractions. Unfortunately the season at the lake is a very short one. Why this should be so, it is difficult to .say. A total of 279 per-* sous visited the house, all within a very short period, during which the bedroom accommodation was much short of requirements. Additions to this house will have to be provided for at an early date. Tho receipts for the year amounted to £441. Improvements at this .resort, consisting of fencing, paddock for grazing, erection of jetty and skids, also the building of a small three-roomed cottage for the accommodation dl servants, are now being undertaken. The laying out and planting of the lawns, gaaxleus and orchards is also well m hamd. A chaaige m the management has taken place during the year. Mr Mayo Laving resigned, Mr J. P. Ward was appointed, to fill the vacancy. Lake Waikaremoana (says the report) will never attain the position as a tourjst resort that its beauties> deserve until it is made easy of access from Rotorua. At present, visitors may drive from Rotorua, via Galatea, as far as Te Whaiti (about sixty miles), and ride another twenty miles over a. very indifferent road to Ruatahuna. Thence to the lake shores (about seventeen miles) there is a very rough bush track, better suited for walking than riding. It is nefeessary that the formed road from Te Whaiti to Ruatahuna should be put' m good order for vehicular traffic, and that the gap intervening between the latter point and the kit© should be completed. As wag pointed out m the previous report, this road, when finished, will open up one of the finest scenic districts m the colony — the Urewera country—and will enable coach travellers to make the trip from Rotorua to Waikaremoana in* two days. The Urewera route is undoubtedly one> of the future great coaching runs m New Zealand, and it will have the additional advantage of directly connecting tw-a of tine colony's chief pleasure resorts. The isolation of, this resort from the colony's telegraph system no doubt militates against its complete success, -and it is etirongly urged that there should be an extension of the line from Frasertown to the lake. The Department have m. tine meantime inaugurated a carrier pigeon service between Lake House and. Waivoa., which will be m full working order for the coming season.