“Throne of the North Island.”

The huge spread of Tongariro National Park, at the centre of the North Island, takes in the volcanic trio of Mts. Tongariro, Ruapehu (9175ft.), and Ngauruhoe. Tongariro is a “sleeping partner” now; Ruapehu shows some heat at intervals in the lake on its ice-rimmed crater, and Ngauruhoe has an occasional harmless smoke. It is claimed for this park—with its majesty of mountain scenery, beautiful forests, little lakes, and the varied play of water in colourful streams and cascades—that it has nearly every type of New Zealand's inland scenery.

At the fringe of the park is the heart-shaped lake of Taupo, seventeen miles in width and twenty-five in length, the largest lake of New Zealand, in a splendid setting. Taupo and its tributaries offer the world's best rainbow trout to the angler.