IMPRESSIONS OF N.Z.

Press, Volume C, Issue 29702, 21 December 1961, Page 9

IMPRESSIONS OF N.Z.

Passengers From Oriana Snow was seen for the first time by some of the Australian passengers from the Oriana yesterday during a 300-mile flight about Canterbury. This first glimpse of New Zealand was described by members of the party as ’•terrific.” Impressions gained were of a land of extraordinary and sudden contrasts in colour and topography, of quaint, orderly patterns—and of a land with an amazing number of private circuits for training racehorses. The colours of the land, ranging from soft mauves to dark greens, and the concentrated motley of the pastures and agricultural land, drew considerable comment from a group of Western Australians. The variety of timbers apparent from the air, the orderly division of the land with hedges and the startling transition from level Plato to rugged height, were other features which the visitors found novel. Five aircraft were chartered for the trip, which took about two hours and a half. The first flight was made yesterday morning with 22 persons and was repeated again to the afternoon. The flights began by circling the Oriana then headed for Mount Cook and the glaciers. For a number of passengers the first sight of snow was a startling sensation—“as though a bucket of whitewash had been spilt and lumps of plaster-of-Paris flung about,” said one woman.