KEEPING N.Z. GREEN

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33693, 16 November 1974, Page 24

KEEPING N.Z. GREEN

Ever tried to establish, in a Tourtist Hotel Corporation hotel, in the middle of a West Coast storm, if the road you intend travelling the next day is open? An Australian couple on a “drive younself” package holiday tried. The hotel switchboard didn’t know at 6 pm. but promised to find or' mo hours—and no information —later the, visitors did establish that the switch-board had | cosed down for the night. They tried the hotel’s internal after. hours number; got the cook, with much mirth in the background. Cook had no idea about roads; no idea who would know; no

, | idea where the manager •I was. The couple cannot rrid themselves of the sust picion that it was the • managers’ voice they t could hear shouting: “Tell the b . . s the b . . road’s ; open. Maybe they’ll clear r out." The voice was right. • And they did, cancelling > all their other T.H.C. I bookings. But private enter- > prise hotels have their ■ moments too. In Queenstown the "sea food cockI tail” emerged as chunks ; of solid ice with a few' ■ embedded shreds of fish.i ■ The tourist couple felt ■their complaint was tri-i i' vial, however, when the ’ I diner at the next table, > after staring at his meal! i for 15 minutes, finally!

(Persuaded the waitress that he had no cutlery. “Why didn’t you pinch some off a table where someone had finished?” he was told. Then came Dunedin, and shirts to the laundry. Back they came — packaged in plastic, complete with cardboard down the back and pins by the dozen in the collar. Impeccable, Just like new. Until the visitors succeeded in extracting one and found only the front had been ironed, ilt all adds up to a good case for New Zealanders to “See N.Z. first.” Don’t we deserve to know just what our visitons are getiting for their tourist dollars? iH