NO TOURIST ROUTE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16227, 29 December 1926, Page 7

NO TOURIST ROUTE

EOTOBUA-WHAKATANE KOAD IN SHOCKING CONDITION “ There has been a good deal of talk about making the Rotorua-Gisborne route an important avenue of tourist traffic, but until something is done to improve the travelling over the section between Rotorua and W hakatane it seems hopeless to expect tourists to desert the older-established* roads.” This is the conclusion reached by a Gisborne resident who visited Ilotoruu during the Christmas holidays, and who spent a most uncomfortable afternoon covering the comparatively short distance between Wliakatane and 1 the thermal centre. This section of the road he stated to be in a shocking condition, and bearing few evidences of attention. “ It might he said that the WaikohuMotuhora, section is still the worst on the route,” stated the tourist, “ for durmo- the holidays traffic was held up there altogether. ‘Efforts are being made to improve that portion of the road, however, and there is every indication that it will be metalled from end to endl in the course of a year or two. On the Whakatane-Rotorua section tho position is different, apparently, for only at one or two points were there any evidences of work being done. On the Rotoma gorge approach a deviation is being made that will take the road on a straighter line, for 'some distance, and) will cut out a bad bend or two, , but surface conditions seem to deserve more prompt attention. The surface of the road for miles and miles is out up,/and full of holes, so had indeed' that travel must he slow and uncomfortable in dry weather, while in wet weather such as was experienced during Christmas time it is a most wearying journey.” TAUPO ROAD EXCELLENT. The tourist remarked further that whereas the Taupo road out of Rotorua had had a great deal of attention lately, having been graded up and rolled! for a considerable distance, there was no evidence that a grader had been at work on the Wliakatane road for months. Tho conditions on both routes are much tho same, except that the Wliakatane road has scenery which totally eclipses that on the other route. The country is pumicy, and a grader would have no difficulty in putting a good surface on either road and! maintaining it in good order. The storm-water itself had done : good grading work on parts of the Whakatane road, for flowing down the ruts it had flattened the whole of the sandy surface, filling the holes and taking down the bumps. It would not ho a highly expensive business to put the whole road over the Rotoma hill in good order for the summer traffic at least.

One difficulty with which the local bodies through whose districts the Whakatane-Rotorua road runs is the sparsity of settlement. For long stretches the traveller does not see a house, and the poorness of the country, from a productive point of view, forces itself on the attention of the tourist. Once off the Rangataiki plains, the traveller finds himself in light pumice country, incapable of carrying stock to a paying extent, andl it follows that where settlement is so scarce the rates are practically negligible for road-building purposes. This section is obviously one that the Main Highways Board will have to take in hand in its entirety, if the money expended so lavishly on the improvement of the route through the Poverty Bay and Opotiki districts is to make its full return. So long as , the WhakataneRqtorua section remains in its present neglected condition, the volume of traffic over the road will be limited 1 , and the magniScent- scenery on the Mbtu-Cpotibi section will be hidden from the majority of tourists.