Seeing Auckland In Half A Day

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31449, 16 August 1967, Page 18

Seeing Auckland In Half A Day

Led by the Mayor

(Sir George Manning), a Christchurch party of businessmen, travel agents, women’s organisation leaders, and journalists yesterday visited Auckland in the “fly-north” campaign of the National Airways Corporation.

This is the South Island counterpart of a “fly-south” campaign in the north by which travel interests are encouraging New Zealanders as well as overseas tourists to visit new resorts and hotels as “a packaged deal.” The Christchurch manager of N.A.C. (Mr J. E. Davies) said results were already apparent, but the corporation planned the campaign over several years to foster interisland visits by air. Yesterday’s party left Christchurch at 7.30 a.m. and reached Auckland well before lunch in spite of weather delays at Wellington. As a promotion event the trip had been dogged by bad weather. It was postponed twice, and, when the aircraft left Wellington yesterday, there was still a chance that it might have to land at Dunedin, the only airport in the country clear of trouble.

However, at Auckland, things brightened and became brisker.

The Mayor and journalists stepped straight from an N.A.C. Viscount into a Tourist Air Travel amphibian, flew low over Auckland and down the Waitemata Harbour to Pakatoa Island, in the Hauraki Gulf, where the amphibian landed on the sea, ran up the beach, and dropped passengers 25 yards from the hotel. They arrived before others, travelling by hydrofoil, had left Auckland. The Christchurch party was

shown:— The 1} million dollar investment of Kerridge-Odeon on the 68-acre Pakatoa Island, comprising a modern tourist hotel and precut holiday house units to accommodate about 200 persons set on grassy slopes with magnificent views. The deed of pur-

chase from the Maoris Is on display. Pakatoa, Rotoroa, Ponui, and McCallum T Islands were bought by the New Zealand Company on September 23, 1826, for one double-gun-

sight musket and a barrel of powder. fhe hydrofoil which is an Auckland attraction for visitors wanting a 40-miles-an-hour run down the harbour, lunch at

Pakatoa, and immediate return to Auckland. The new Auckland White Heron Hotel, which is heavily booked by tourists and local conference organisations. New Auckland shopping con-

cepts. Extensive Auckland building development, explained by officers of the Regional Authority. The Mangere International Airport facilities. The party was back in Christchurch by 10 p.m. Sir George Manning said: “This shows what can be done in a day by flying, but I am certain many South Islanders will want to spend longer studying the most interesting and imaginative development going on the north. There is certainly an enormous amount to see. It changes every month.”