TOURISTS BESIEGE

Northern Advocate, 4 January 1938, Page 5

TOURISTS BESIEGE

Northland has witnessed a holiday tourist season such as has had no precedent. Although no official figures of the numbers of tourists visiting the peninsula since Christmas Eve are available, the phenomenal influx of visitors during the past 10 days has been proof positive of the growing popularity of this part of New Zealand as a holiday resort. Today sees the greater portion of the Dominion’s population back to work once again, and Northland roads have been as busy with returning tourists in the past two days as they were with North-bound motorists in the first few days of the Christmas recess.

Returning Home.

From now on until the end of January, there will no doubt be large numbers of visitors to Northland, but the extraordinary Christmas and New Year rush has returned whence it came.

Although the Whangarei camp-site has been harbouring about 20 different encampments in the past two weeks, there were only five camper's last night. At most of the surrounding beaches, also, campers have rapidly dispersed and left only a comparatively few visitors in occupation. * Reports from the Whangarei office of the Automobile Association state that there are still numbers of people camped at Paihia and Opononi, although most Christmas campers have returned home. At Ruakaka the site was filled to capacity during the holidays, but today there are only a few campers left. A number of Whangarei residents are spending the school holidays at Ruakaka and will be there until the end of January. Roads in Fair Order.

Mr H. K. Ford, local A.A. patrol officer, stated this morning that Northland roads generally had stood up very well to the tremendous amount of traffic over the holidays. Rain in some parts had caused difficulty, but graders had kept the roads in fairly good condition. The Russell road, which had been the cause of much talk, was in fair condition, although a portion this side of Helena Bay had been chopped up badly with rain. From Opononi, through the Kauri Forest to Dargaville, the road.. was fairly rough, due to the unusual amount of traffic, he said. The Waipu Cove-Mangawai road was not in good condition, and motorists were advised not to use that route. Rain had caused the clay to come up through the metal and had left the surface In a bad state. Slips on the Hikurangi-Matapouri road demanded care from motorists, he continued. That road was rough, particularly on some of the hilly parts, but was not dangerous for reasonably careful drivers.

Popular Hound Trip. Perhaps the most popular route traversed by motorists was the round trip, Whangarei-Paihia-Whangaroa-Kaitaia-Kohukohu-Rawene-Kauri For-est-Dargaville, and thence back to Auckland, either by way of Whangarei or directly from Dargaville. Crowds of people made their way to Kaitaia, although few ventured on to Ninety-mile Beach. Those still intending going further north than Kaitaia were 'advised to use the beach and not the inland road. On the Whangarei-Dargaville highway there had been a heavy volume of traffic, the road being kept in fairly good order with a grader.