The Rimu Avenue.

There is a most lovely forest road, lovelier even than famous Hongi's Track—where by the way, the widening and straightening operations of the roadmakers in the interest of hurry-on motorists have robbed the route of much of its olden charm. This is a three-mile road from Ruato, on the south side of Rotoiti, to the northern end of Lake Okataina. It passes through a noble forest of rimu pines and other great trees, the bush called Waione. For most of the distance from lake to lake the ground is level, once you climb up from Ruato to the Waione plateau, and the road is a cool fragrant avenue quite overshadowed by the foliage of the most beautiful trees in the Maori forest. It is a glorious bit of the real unspoiled bush and long may it remain so.

And it is the gateway to a wonder-place of quiet waters and luxuriant tree-life; that vast mountainside of pohutukawa trees on the western side of Okataina is something that no other lakeshore can show, not even Rotoiti, fine as it is.