VISITOR FROM LONDON

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22320, 3 May 1947, Page 7

VISITOR FROM LONDON

Travelling by flying-boat from London to Sydney in a week was the recent experience of Mrs. O. M. McKenzie, Troon, Ayrshire, Scotland, who was at the Masonic Hotel, Gisborne yesterday. Chatting with a Gisborne Herald reporter, Mrs. McKenzie said that she had thoroughly enjoyed her journey out to Australia and had felt, if anything, safer in .the seaplane than she had felt previously travelling by ship. She left London on November 6 last, and her week’s journey took her to Marseilles for a night, then on to Cairo, where the flying-boat passengers, instead of staying the night at the famous Shepherd’s Hotel, were guests on a house-boat on the Nile. Mrs.McKenzie remarked that the house-boat had been taken over for the purpose of accommodating passengers and said that they were made very comfortable aboard. Cabins were allocated to passengers ana there was even a shop aboard at which, however, goods were very expensive, nylon stockings selling for £2 10s a pair. Crossing the desert, the next stop was made at Beirut, the next at Karachi. where dinner was eaten, and that night the flying-boat’s passengers slept in Calcutta A night was spent at both Rangoon and Singapore, the last two hops being to Darwin and then on .to Sydney, where Mrs. McKenzie stayed for .three weeks before flying the Tasman to New Zealand. This is her third visit to New Zealand and she has been visiting relatives and friends in .the North Island. She returns to Scotland next week bv the Rangitata.