For something different...

Press, 7 September 1976, Page 1

For something different...

By

LES BLOXHAM, travel editor

Christ’s College pnpils are being promoted in the United States as a New Zealand tourist attraction.

A half-page advertisement (part of which is reproduced above), inserted by the New Zealand Government Tourist Office in “The New York Times” in June, included an illustration of these eight collegians on bicycles and wearing boaters. The Tourist Department’s message seems to be that if the Americans look hard enough — and allow themselves a couple of weeks (at least) to do it—they might happen upon little touches of Europe in the South Island.

They can forget about the North Island; the advertisement certainly does. “Milford Scund. Trek in by foot, fly in, drive in to this spectacular Norwegian fiord setting where 5000 ft cliffs plummet to the sea,” states the caption under a murky picture — a night shot, perhaps? “Swirling clouds change to shimmering sun and rainbows in minutes. If South Pacific Islands start to seem all the same, see Milford!” The third illustration in the advertisement is of the Tasman glacier: "Southern Alps — take a Mount Cook ski-plane ride over the peak that Mount Everest climbers tested their nerve on,” is the advice. “Land on your own private moving glacier 8000 ft up. This is right out of Switzerland. And it’s (sic) right

in the South Pacific! In New Zealand!” The advertisement also includes a coupon inviting readers to ask the Tourist Office for more information.