NEW CALEDONIAN PARTY GOT FLU AFTER SNOW

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28794, 15 January 1959, Page 7

NEW CALEDONIAN PARTY GOT FLU AFTER SNOW

. Rolling in the snow at The Chateau Tongariro a few days after leaving the tropical heat of New Caledonia cannot be recommended, to judge from the experiences of a party of French tourists which arrived in Christchurch yesterday. Within a day or two of their snowfight, 16 of the party of 22 were in bed with influenza—and it was apparent that most of them had not got over it properly by yesterday, as four were still in bed. The party arrived in Auckland from Noumea on January 1, under the care of Mr Jacques Laplagne, a schoolteacher who is on his fourth trip to New Zealand, and his wife of three weeks, Mrs Marina Laplagne, who was one

leof the bedridden tourists yesters day. t Mrs Laplagne is on her first 2 visit to New Zealand. First Visit 1 Most of the members of the party are on their first visit to New Zealand, and for them it is J a new and wonderful experience. “ “They are having a really lovely 1 time,’* said Mrs Laplagne, who 1 got up from her sick bed to speak V to the reporter. “They haven’t 1 stopped enjoying themselves once, even allowing for the ’flu —and of 1 course for me, this is a honeyr moon, as well as a tour.” ! * Mr Laplagne is a busy man at s this time of the year. Besides org1 anising this tour, he has also s arranged two exchange tours of 2 New Caledonia schoolchildren to New Zealand, and another tour " of those passing out of high school to Australia at the end of this New Zealand tour, Mrs Laplagne will accompany him on the Australian tour also. “We’re a very mixed mob,” said Mrs Laplagne. “The oldest is a wonderful grandmother of 70— it’s the first time she has been out of New Caledonia, and everything is absolutely wonderful for her. The youngest is her granddaughter, who is 15.” v These two soon came in, after getting lost in the Botanic Gardens and missing the bus, and it - was obvious just how much they j were enjoying New Zealand—the 3 grandmother was bubbling over r with what she had seen, including - the Canterbury Museum, with j which she was particularly impressed. 2 The party will leave tomorrow 2 morning for the Hermitage, and 1 from there they will visit most of 2 the South Island. On their return they will have another two t days in Christchurch—“ Thank i goodness,” said Mrs Laplagne. ; “All I have seen so far of Chris*- - church is the river outside the hotel window, but when I come z back I should be over this ’flu—- » I feel much better now.”