ROUND VOYAGES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 76, Issue 164, 14 July 1933, Page 6

ROUND VOYAGES

TOURISTS BY AKAROA. SOME TO COME AGAIN. LONDON, June I. Of the 50 passengers whu made the round voyage in the Shaw, Savill liner Akaroa, several have made up their minds to repeat tho experience next winter. Air. W. J. Douglas, passenger manager of tho company, who went to New Zealand in the Akaroa, says that the tourists were all delighted with the scenery of both islands, which far surpassed ever their most sanguine expectations. "I have heard of Rotorua for many years,” he added, “but until I saw it fur myself I hail uo real conception of the wonders of its hot springs and geysers. The glow-worm caves at Waitomo were well worth a journey across the world to see. In the South Island, which English tourists are sometimes obliged to miss, is probably tho least spoiled scenery in the civilised world. The journey from Hokitika, the centre of the West Coast gold rushes of the ’sixties, to Franz Josef Glacier is unsurpassed. The ice of the glacier comes rigllt down to sea level and its setting in 'lhe green native forest is superb. Mount Cook and the motor drive through the Buller Gorge are other attractions which no visitorshould miss.’ ’ Mr. Douglas spoke very highly of the Tourist Department. This, he said, is cu-operating very closely with the company in arranging tours. “Every possible detail is thought out. iu advance,” he said, <r and nobody need be deterred by ignorance of the country from making the journey. Round-voy-age tickets allow the traveller to miss more than three months of the English winter at a cost of little more than a pound a day, and the 'traveller’s English pound is worth about 25 shillings when he goes on shore, instead of about 14 shillings on the Continent.”