MANY VISIT RUAPEHU

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 805, 28 October 1929, Page 10

MANY VISIT RUAPEHU

CHATEAU TONGARIRO FULL OFFICIAL OPENING NEXT WEEK More than 170 visitors from Auckland are among the 300 guests at Chateau Tongariro this week-end. Two whole days in the National Park, .New Zealand's winter playground, was made available to the public at low rates through the co-operation of the Tongariro Park Tourist Company and the Railway Department. The party will return to the city by train early tomorrow morning. The official opening of the Chateau is not to take place until the beginning of next week, although the building has been partially in use since the end of August, when increased accommodation was made necessary through the number of visitors to the Ruapehu Ski Club's annual contests. Visitors will assemble at the park from Friday onward. The chairman of the Tongariro National Park Board, Mr. J. B. Thompson, who laid the foundationstone in March, will perform the official opening at 3.30 p.m. on Monday next. This will be followed in the evening by an official dinner. Organised excursions through the park will be made on Saturday, and on Sunday a motor trip around the northern boundary to Tokaanu will be followed by a fishing excursion on ! Lake Taupo and a visit to the hot ! springs. A motor run to Retaruke, on I the Wanganui River, with lunch in the liousboat, will precede the oflicial opening on Monday. Wonderful views are obtainable from all windows of the Chateau, a thoroughly modern city hotel set amid rugged mountain scenery. The building and equipment cost about £BO,OOO. All three peaks are easily accessible from the Chateau, which is in a central position at the foot of Mount Ruapehu, the highest of the three mountains.