LADY TOURISTS HAVE EXCITING JOURNEY DOWN WEST COAST.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18349, 29 December 1927, Page 8

LADY TOURISTS HAVE EXCITING JOURNEY DOWN WEST COAST.

To be a tourist seeing the world is very nice, but it is not without its unpleasant thrills. The experiences of two young ladies, the Misses Knowles, touring America and New Zealand, and who come from Blackburn, England, are worth relating. After sight-seeing in America they came over to glorious New Zealand and landed in Wellington to catch the steamer to Nelson. It being holiday time, berths, of course, were scarce. However, with the aid of a friend they managed to secure a berth on deck, but, alas, the night proved dark and stormy, the great waves of the mighty ocean dashing on to the deck and showing no respect for persons, and the young ladies found it a difficult task reaching their cabin. However, once inside, they thought all would be well, but a big cruel wave came over and made straight for their snug quarters, and alas in a few seconds they did not know if they were in a cross-channel swimming race or had made a mistake and got into a private swimming bath. They were victims of mal de mer all the way to Nelson, but caught the service car to Reefton en route for South Westland.

Whilst proceeding through the gorge, round one of the numerous bends, a little Ford car tried to climb up on top of their service car, making thrill number two, and not being used to mountain roads with yawning precipices some hundreds of feet below, they were naturally not exactly bubbling over with mirth at the incident. Reef ton reached, and the two j'oung ladies having to their way of thinking had quite enough thrills for the time being, were glad to see more sedate means of travelling in the RefetonGrey express, on which they secured seats, and, after seeing to their luggage, settled down for a nice quiet rest, their first since leaving Wellington, two of the waggons attache.fl to was out.

After getting through the tunnel and coming down the hill this side of Reeftonfi two of the waggons attached to the passenger carriage left the rails, and for quite a distance dust and noise were the order. At last the train pulled up, but it was delayed two hours. The* ladies had then had about enough of the Reefton express, and they willingly accepted a passing motorist’s offer to take them to Greymouth. To quote the Misses Knowles own words: “ If anyone wants more thrills than we had in twenty-four hours, well all we can say is they are really greedy.”