HOLIDAY TOURS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22934, 12 January 1938, Page 15

HOLIDAY TOURS

KECOKD SEASON GROWTH OF TRAVEL \ INTER-ISLAND TRAFFIC ; AUCKLAND ACCOMMODATION Many tourist resorts throughout the Dominion are likely to be as heavily patronised in February as they are this month.'The Auckland office of the Tourist Department is still engaged at pressure in arranging tours, and it is still finding acute, the problem of arranging hotel or other accommodation at soni.. places. It is clear the present season will provide records in travel and the patronago of holiday resorts. People are going increasingly far afield for their holidays and the growth of travel is imposing a distinct strain oil transport, as well as accommodation facilities. On three occasions in the past week or so the express ferry steamers between Wellington and Lyttclton were fully booked, and yesterday many women could .not get passages in the second class. Bookings being irregularly distributed over diflerent types of cabins, f'nanv passengers have been compelled to book dearer berths than they had first contemplated. It is said that inter-island traffic has never been heavier in January than it has been this month. Private Houses Utilised The strain on hotel and other accommodation is not confined to the a-ctual tourist resorts; recently the Tourist Office, finding it impossible to get lodging for all visitors in hotels and boarding houses in Auckland, worked on the list of private houses which at the time of the last Rugby test match with the Springboks were prepared to -take paying guests. Only by making use of such resources were difficulties overcome. It has several times meant some hours of telephoning before all the visitors who have come ashore at Auckland from overseas Bteaniers in the holidays have been lodged in the city. Some tourist resorts have enjoyed exceptional attention notwithstanding the wide spread this year of travel. In the South Island accommodation at the Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers Mas fully booked mid-way through December for some time ahead. At times visitors ha (I to be turned away from Te Anau. at the head of the Milford track, because all lodging accommodation was booked. Motorists visited the Eglinton Valley in many hundreds, and many-Auckland people could not get lodging at Queenstown and Lake Wanaka at the times they desired. North Island Resorts In the North Island, Rotorua was heavily patronised, and there will be a big influx of . visitors next month, when a howling tournament and a press conference will be in progress Waitomo and the Chateau were several times booked out. and there was nn exceptional' influx of visitors to Wairakei and Lake Waikaremoana. At times the.State hostel at Lake Waikaremoana ccfuld have been filled twice over, a fact of significance in view of the dedision to rebuild.