Holiday Traffic Still Heavy

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30642, 7 January 1965, Page 1

Holiday Traffic Still Heavy

Thousands of holiday-makers and tourists are still travelling throughout the South Island, and bus companies, the railways, and the inter-island steamers are very’ busy. The steamer-expresses from Lyttelton to Wellington are heavily booked until January 13, although accommodation is becoming available through late cancellations. On Sunday the Hinemoa will make a special daylight sailing from Lyttelton, and accommodation is available on her. The steamer expresses are heavily booked well ahead for car traffic and there is a waiting list for every sailing.

The main roads are still carrying heavy traffic, although the north road is busier than the south. Bus drivers using the Main South road report no difficulties with traffic, but those using the Main North road have been delayed up to half an hour by traffic. A particular difficulty is caravans. Drivers using the Main North road near Christchurch nieet fairly frequent slow-moving queues formed behind caravans and slow cars. Newman Brothers report being even busier than at Christmas, with traffic to and from Nelson being very heavy. Additional services are running, and generally accommodation is booked out up to 24 hours ahead. Weekends in particular are popu-

lar with travellers, and the period is much busier than in previous years. Buses are carrying a large number of overseas tourists. Most of them are Australians, but there are also some Americans. Nearly all have been travelling independently, and not on organised tours.

Though tours in the Nelson area have not been as well supported this year as in previous years, tours from Christchurch, particularly to the glaciers and the southern lakes, have proved very popular.

Midland Motorways Services, Ltd., reports a busy period, with plenty of sightseeing tours. The Dunedin service has been very busy both ways, and extra services are being run when necessary. Both the full-day tours to

I the gorges and to Benmore i are proving very popular, and at least one full-day tour is run each day. There is also an excellent response to the half-day tours. The railways also report plenty of traffic, with bookings coming in steadily. A feature is the number of persons wishing to travel to the West Coast, and additional rail cars are running each day. There are still many passengers on the expresses, which are bigger than usual, and an additional express is running to Dunedin each day.

Beaches and rivers in Canterbury are popular both with picnickers and campers, and there are very few riverside sites without caravans and tents. Camping grounds are also well patronised, many being nearly full.