GEOGRAPHICAL ODDITIES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25871, 15 June 1945, Page 6

GEOGRAPHICAL ODDITIES

DUNEDIN WEST OF HOKITIKA J

The old remark that Dunedin is actually west of Hokitika was known to Mr H. F. Baird, of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, before he set out on the magnetic survey of New Zealand, a work which took him to all parts of the country, and he found some interesting geographical “ oddities.” He found, for instance, that he was only 12 miles south of Hokitika after he had travelled 150 miles “down” from that town, while the other end of the West Coast road, 10 yards above Karamea, was actually about 11 miles north of Wellington. Few realised, he said, that Mount Cook was on a line only about three miles south of Cathedral square. The face of Fox. Glacier was about two miles north of Cathedral square, and Farewell Spit lighthouse was almost 25 miles north of Castlepoint lighthouse, on the east coast of the North Island.

Having seen, on the survey, New Zealand’s geography and scenery and experienced its climate, Mr Baird said he regarded South Westland as the most beautiful part of the Dominion. Sandflies were the bane of South Island scenic spots. What appealed most in *the North Island were Lake Waikaremoana and the coastal glimpses from the Coromandel Peninsula and North Auckland. For climate he would give the palm for all the year round to the central part of the north of the South Island—but ort that palm would be sandflies.