ARTIST'S TOUR

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 68, 17 September 1936, Page 11

ARTIST'S TOUR

AN OPEN-AIR LIFE

PRAISE FOR NEW ZEALAND

(From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, August 8.

Luc'retia Johnson, of Haslemere, an artist who recently toured. New Zealand, has some complimentary things to say of the Dominion in the "Farnham Herald." . . .

After extolling the happiness to ba found in the open road, she says:— "What life, can be more ideal for-the I artist (portrait painters barred), able |to move when and where he will? Such are the possibilities of a country like New Zealand, where a tent may be pitched almost anywhere outside' the towns in most beautiful surroundings. Shady nooks, with running streams and no one to call for the rent, .for it is free land. , , : "It was my luck to live in £ tent for four years, winter and summer, in both the North and South Islands, and a more healthy life it is hard to find. Many thought we could not brave .the winter out of doors in the South Island, but it is quite possible if the right spot is chosen. Nelson is one.of the ideal places for winter' camping, cold night. and morning, but beautiful sunshine during the day. It is rightly named 'Sunny Nelson.' A good many retired Indian Army people live there on account of its climate.

"On returning to England my idea was to continue the gipsy life, but after 'touring sortie hundreds of, miles I realised that the idea would have to be abandoned.. Towns having grown to such an extent and all the intervening country being cultivated, it is hard^ to find any spot where it is practical* to pitch a tent for any length of time. For instance, take the run of 300 miles or more on the main road from London to Edinburgh, there is not a spot where one could camp in comfort with a water supply handy to the tent (camping sites excepted), yet in New Zealand, on a similar run of 300 miles in the South Island, say, from Nelson to Christchurch, except actually in the towns, where there are the recognised camping grounds, one could pick a spot at almost any point in beautiful surroundings with .a fresh water spring within about 200 yards. The hospitality shown by most of the New Zealanders to campers in their vicinity is. amazing."