SOUTH WESTLAND

Taranaki Daily News, 26 September 1933, Page 3

SOUTH WESTLAND

REGION FOR TOURISTS DEVELOPING AIR TRAVEL. LITTLE-KNOWN ATTRACTIONS. Interesting impressions of South Westland as a territory attractive to tourists were given yesterday by Captain J. C. Mercer, a well-known Christchurch airman, who has been visiting Auckland. Captain Mercer said the area was comparatively little known, but efforts were being made to develop travel by air in South Westland, and the swifter means of communication should play a considerable part in increasing the tourist traffic. Captain Mercer arrived by aeroplane on Wednesday and will leave again this morning.

“I have always been very interested in the tourist attractions of New Zealand, and South Westland is one district which really deserves more recognition than it has received,” Captain Mercer said. “The Franz Josef Glacier is widely known, of course, but what the average traveller does not realise is the interest to be found in the district further afield than Franz Josef.” Captain Mercer said that, coupled with the distinctive beauties of Franz Josef, other majestic sights in South Westland could be seen from the air where the present means of travel restricted the opportunities of the visitor. A WEEK-END VISIT. As a pilot who had made numbers of tourist trips to Franz Josef by air from Christchurch, he believed that a proposed daily aeroplane service between Hokitika and Franz Josef would do much for the district' from the point of view of tourist trade. Where it now took days to travel from Christchurch to Franz Josef and back by rail and road, the return journey could be done by air in four and a-half hours. Tourists had already shown an interest in the air journey, which permitted a visit to Franz Josef at a week-end where other means of communication would occuply almost a week. A daily aeroplane service between Christchurch and Franz Josef was not practicable at present, because of the uncertainty of weather conditions in crossing the Southern Alps. Tourists would travel by rail to Westland, and the proposed aeroplane service between Hokitika and Franz Josef would prove convenient in their journey. The settlers themselves were enthusiastic about the development of travel by air. Scenic flights from Franz Josef were expected to be a growing attraction, and, for these, landing grounds were in view in several parts of South Westland. INCOMPARABLE VIEW FROM AIR. Using Franz Josef as a base, aeroplane flights threw open a vast territory to interest the tourist. The view of the Alps from the air, a short distance from Franr. Josef, was incomparable, and Mount Cook and other great peaks, Tasman, Elie de Beaumont, La Perouse and Copeland among them, stood out in the plainest detail. There were hot springs up the Copeland River at Welcome Flat, and there was a magnificent attraction in the remote Arawata River, flowering into Jackson’s Bay. /

Captain Mercer has carried out a considerable investigation of the Arawata River, which he regards as one of the most impressive nights in South Westland. The river is about 30 miles long, but its bed averages two miles wide. From either bank, steep bush-clad and snow-capped mountains rise. Lake Ellory a scenic gem, is reached by following the course of the Arawata, and then there is Mount Aspiring, one of New Zealand’s most. graceful peaks. Captain Mercer has succeeded in effecting a landing on the shingle well up the course of the river.