A PIECE OF TWINE HIS TRAVEL AID

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31190, 14 October 1966, Page 2

A PIECE OF TWINE HIS TRAVEL AID

A long piece of kitchen twine is an indispensable aid to travelling for Mr Clyde Campbell, an American now living with his family in Christchurch.

A well-seasoned traveller, Mr Campbell told members of the Canterbury Travel Club yesterday that a length of twine was the firs’ thing he put into his suitcase when packing for a trip. The second was an inflatable coat hanger. He found that hotel rooms never had anywhere to hang dripping shirts. But from a picece of string, which he could tie to the shower tap and the door knob, he could suspend his wet shirt over a basin.

water. The coastline was littered with dead sea birds which had been caught in the oil. “This is what happens when people don’t preserve natural beauty. Let us keep New Zealand beautiful,” said Mr Campbell. Mr Campbell thought Las Vegas artificial but said it should be seen. "Once was enough for us. We could hardly get through the lobby of the hotel —it was so full of one-armed bandits manned by middle-aged women. It was most depressing to see them pulling the handles,” he said.

cars under the one roof were everywhere. One he had visited featured a pet department which included a boa constrictor marked down in price. Diet foods abounded. “They are very weight conscious. 1 guess they have to be." he said. Sweden seemed to have solved the drink-drive problem. The first thing he was told was that if he drank he must not drive. Drivers suspected of drinking were given a blood test and if it was positive were promptly gaoled. Thailand was the only place he had visited where customs officials examined luggage when the visitor left the country. Officials were trying to reduce gold and drug smug gling.

Also indispensable was an electric shaver with a series of connecting plugs so that he could shave in any country in the world without having to worry about different voltages. Mr Campbell spoke about the light side of travel and produced a case of “props” for illustration. During his travels he said, he acquired local headgear and could merge into the landscape.

Mr Campbell said he had noticed several changes in America since he was last there. Discount houses which sold everything from pins to

For visits to Honolulu he had a straw hat decorated with plastic fruit, a brightlypatterned blue shirt and a straw beach mat decorated with a hula girl. During their last trip, he and his family had visited Honolulu, California, Las Vegas, Ohio, Reno, Sweden, Europe, Thailand, Hong Kong and Manila. He had the right hat for each place. While in California the family had driven along the Monterey Peninsula—once a noted scenic attraction. Now an oil refinery was there and pumped out waste into the