Choosing Your Route Home

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 45, 23 February 1938, Page 14

Choosing Your Route Home

Jj’Oß some reason most New Zealanders prefer to travel via Suez, when they first go to Europe. Possibly it is because their friends went through Suez or because they have never thought of any other route. To go any other way somehow seems plain sacrilege. Ninety-nine per cent, of New Zealand travellers have this Suez complex. Actually the route chosen should be determined by the sason of sailing. The best months for travel via Suez are October-February. The Red Sea may be as cool as you could wish, and the Indian Ocean, free from monsoons, is one long delight with its deep, peaceful roll and brilliant sunsets. Many people have the idea that each voyage has the same chance of calm and rough v/eather as any other, and that one met storms at sea interspersed with days of calm sunshine, no matter what the season. This is not true. Of course, storms do come “out of the blue,” but there are certain months when we can be reasonably sure of having calm weather for the best part of the journey and others when we can be depressingly certain of not having it. During the famous monsoon season (May-September) on the Suez route not only rough weather, but intensely humid weather is scheduled, an almost unbearable combination when the porthole has to be closed to keep the sea out! That is when we know if we really did book our cabin on the right side of the ship. Is i'. port or is it starboard? We never can remember. Officially it is starboard (right side) going from New Zealand to London, and port (left side) coming home from London to New Zealand. Actually it varies with the voyage, and the starboard cabin holder need not congratulate himself too heartily before leaving New Zealand. It will all depend on which way the wind is blowing in the Indian Ocean. The alternatives to taking a three weeks’ Turkish bath m the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea are to go via the Cape of Good Hope, through America, around the Horn or via Panama. We will omit the Trans-Siberian Railway and the Cape to Cairo roote with your permission. The Cape of Good Hope is a muchused and. popular route among travellers, but during the May-September season the sea is at its roughest via the Cape,

and a bad sailc r would have little to choose between the Suez heat and the Cape waves. To go through America is the dream of most of us, but is hardly the concern of the bargain h unter, as the minimum fare, second class, is about £7O, with the additional expense of accommodation in America. Sailing ships go round the Horn and can well be left i or the adventurous few. The Panama route is left for consideration. During the May-September season this routo offers weeks of comparative cool and calm. From New Zealand to Pitcairn Island (about six days) the weather may still be rough, but after that there is every hope of calm sailing. Crossing the equator in the eastern Pacific is accompanied by the cool trade winds, and one may have to wear a top coat on deck at night, while fellow Now Zealanders on the Suez route are gasping with the heat, like fish out of water. Once beyond the Panama Canal comes the Atlantic Ocuan and summer time, with its diminis] led chances of stormy weather. So miuh for :he Indian, Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. The Mediterranean is still waiting to be crossed, and it can be a surprise packet. When expected to produce its fiercest gale i* can smile benignly On one voyage- passengers were cautioned by the captain to do their packing while the ship was at Port Said. “It will be cold and rough from Port Said to London,he said. They obediently packed everything except a few winter necessities, and then spent the n sxt ten days unpacking their summer clothes again. Good Luck Emblems. Good luck emblems have seldom enjoyed such whole-hearted popularity as they are accorded to-day. Superstitious or not, a charm clock would appeal because of its novelty. A little metal charm appears in place of each figure on the dial of this clock. At six, for example, there is a tiny lucky pig and at nine the clock hand ] points to a heart, while at noon both hands come together on number 13.

Alternative Journeys To Europe