HOLIDAY RESORTS,

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 935, 4 December 1933, Page 4

HOLIDAY RESORTS,

Attracting Tourists to the South Island. CONFERENCE AT HERMITAGE. I (Special to the ** Star.*’) THE HERMITAGE, December 3. To devise schemes for popularising southern tourist resorts representatives of interested bodies gathered at The Hermitage over the week-end for a conference. There are visitors from Christchurch, South Canterbury, Dunedin, Central Otago and Southland, including representatives of rail, road and air services, booking agencies, county councillors and Public Works Department officers. Yesterday three buses conveyed fifty members of the party fourteen miles to the Ball Hut, from where guides took them for a tramp over the hummocks of the mighty Tasman Glacier. The visitors were, thrilled by the tremendous proportions and mighty sweep of the glacier. In the clear atmosphere Mounts Cook. Tasman, Ilardinger, de la Beche, Minaret and the Grand Saddle provided a wonderful vista, while the castellated, jumbled mass of ice forming the llochstetter Icefall, dropping six thousand feet down the side of Mount Cook was a majestic spectacle, intensified by the sight of several huge ice avalanches on the fall. Several other members of the party climbed up the ridge of Mount Sealey. near The Hermitage, to a small tarn known as Sealey Lake. In the evening a talk was given by i Mr A. P. Harper, president of the New j Zealand Federated Mountain Clubs. | He contrasted the Swiss and the New j Zealand Alps. The snow line in Swit- j derland is three thousand three hun- j fired feet higher than here, making the I climbing of the Southern Alps more ! difficult, because of the snow condi- ! tions. The Cook region, he said, was ! equal to anything in Europe. Films of winter sports and summer climbing were shown. Shortly after one o’clock Mr Eric Clarke, of New Zealand Airways, Ltd., arrived from Timaru by the Southern Cross Kitten, landing with a pa'ssenger, Mr 11. M. M’Kay, managing director, at The Hermitage landing ground two miles down the road. Later Mr Clarke went on several passenger flights over the peaks, including Cook and Sefton. Minor climbs were undertaken todav. Parties set out to climb Sebasto- j no! and the Sealey ridge to the tarn. • Again the weather was perfect. The business of the conference was discussed after dinner.