Luxury Caravan In Whangarei Today

Northern Advocate, 12 October 1949, Page 6

Luxury Caravan In Whangarei Today

On the last stage of a tour of New Zealand the Wanderer, a motoi’ised caravan in which Mr and Mrs and Miss L. T. Hunt, of Melbourne, have spent 10 months touring the country, arrived in Whangarei yesterday afternoon.

Built for a world tour, the caravan is a 22ft by Bft home built on a bus chassis.

The interior is fitted as a luxury caravan while the comfortable bustype front seats avoid tire drawbacks of two vehicles. Full headroom assures comfortable living space in the body which can be divided into two separate compartments by opening two locker doors. A mirror-sleel-lined galley of the launch type is fitted with an oven and kerosene primus on which a pressure cooker is used for most cooking. One bunk is fitted in the forward part of the body while the rear section is a dinette, which can be converted to a double bed at night. The table top is made from laminex, a material new to New Zealand, but which appears to be the answer to the need for a highly polished surface which will not stain or take damage from hot cooking utensils. DESIGNED AS HOME In designing his travelling home Mr Hunt, who is a retired estate agent from Melbourne, has kept in view the fact that the caravan is a home in which three people iiltend to live for a number'of years, and while he has provided solid comfort he has not lost sight of the utility aspect. With a total weight of 4 tons 6cwt, the caravan holds the road well, but some of New Zealand’s wooden bridges sagged under the strain. One at Pipiriki almost collapsed, providing the only road hazard of the entire trip. Arriving in Auckland in March, the Wanderer travelled dowh through Rotorua and Taupo, across the Desert Road to the main south road and Wellington. From there the ferry.was taken to Picton. The return fare across Cook Strait was higher than for the Tasman crossing. The Fox and' Franz Josef Glaciers were the next call approached through the Buller Gorge route. From there the Reefton Pass crossing was made to Christchurch en route to Queenstown and the lake district via the McKenzie Country. Mr Hunt was fortunate enough to be driven through the Homer Tunnel to the sounds. After a visit to Invercargill, Bluff and Stewart Island, the Wanderer returned to Marlborough where the party saw a whale caught by the Tory Channel whaling station. The 92-ton catch was estimated to be worth £I9OO. LAST CALL Northland is the last call before the Wanderer returns to Australia, having spent 10 months in the Dominion. Mr Hunt plans to spend five years travelling in South Africa. His impressions of New Zealand arc the variety of contrasts in scenery and economy and the hospitality of the people. Wherever he has gone, people have shown a keen interest in the p.-rfiy. the caravan, and the impressions gained while travelling through New Zealand. Having seen Stewart Island, the Hunt family intends also to visit Spirits’ Bay, completing a circuit of New Zealand’s 1200-mile north-to-south expanse. For anyone in Australia with a year to spend, Mr Hunt said the only real way to fill that year would be to see New. Zealand. A whole year is required, and it would be well spent, he considers. More than 16,651,000 sightseers visited national parks and monuments in the United States between October, 1948, and July, 1949. This represents a 13 per cent increase over attendances during the same period in the previous year..