What Else At The Lake?

The Waikaremoana Motor Inn, for years known simply as the Lake House, is on the demolition list. At seventy-odd years the old building has become uneconomical and inoperative. Get rid of it? Fair enough. But as the area is the heritage of all of the people of New Zealand, then cabins, built to suit the site as suggested by the Gisborne Chamber of Commerce, are the answer to replace accommodation at Lake Waikaremoana. The site is right for fantastic views of the lake, and all other scenic attractions are concentrated in a very close area. These include the famous Aniwaniwa Falls and a variety of extremely beautiful and interesting bush walks. Cabins would be ideal for anyone wanting to get away from it all for a quiet break. People wouldn't go there? Of course they wouldn't, until the road was sealed. If it was, there would be an easier, interesting, under-three-hour drive from Gisborne, and Napier, inclusive of scenic viewing stops. As overseas tourists (a red herring in the first place) are few and far between, a hotel is not needed. The present camp and cabin site down by the lake-side could quite easily be reorganised as a fisherman's park, leaving the new cabins on the Lake House site for those of the population who really do want to get away from it all. And getting away from it all doesn't mean going to some commercialised place like Rotorua, as some would like-to have us believe.

The money for this? With the overseas tourist trade earnings at present at the $40,000,000 mark, surely a mere $500,000 could be appropriated to pay for the road sealing (Not Reconstruction) and a comparatively simple accommodation plan for we New Zealanders, Some of those dollars could also be used to seal the road from Pukaki to Mount Cook (we're not parochial you see!). There are too many people who have said "Beautiful place but, much as we want to, we won't go back until they've done something about that ...road!"

To summarise: A sealed road to get to comfortable cabin accommodation, at a reasonable price, to enjoy quiet relaxation in one of our own country's most beautiful areas. (This idea of super luxury stuff with luxury prices is just not on, or necessary). And don't forget Lake Waikaremoana is open all the year round, as opposed to places like Milford Sound.

P.S. At one of the world's most marvellous natural wonders, the Grand Canyon in the United States, the entrance is along a 60-mile sealed No Exit road to the unpretentious El Tovar Hotel and cabins, on the rim of the canyon. All you can do there is go walk-about along, and down into the canyon, enjoying only the natural wonder!