Abroad

j| Digest

month we offer you a digest current travel news. We hope h item hits the spot for some ive traveller:

Derangs Cost More:

-Orient Company has upped Boomerang excursion fares ustralia to the UK. From 1, the return fare ex Syd :nimum accommodation, for lass has been increased from to £A363; one-class Boom linimum return, has increased -A3OO to £A375; first-class mg minimum return from to £A426. sailings on these excursions en restricted also—from the m end you must sail be ugust 1 and December 31, if > or first-class; and in Oc- November, if tourist. From tourist sailings are restricted h and April; but if first-class :lass you may sail any time January 1 and May 31. ★ iEY ROYAL: The 1962 Syd al Agricultural Show—which ders reckon is the show-case lation —will open on Friday, and end on April 24. This icludes, as usual, the Easter The Show will be closed but open Good Friday,

SUMMER TIME: In the early hours of March 25—a Sunday— those living in the United Kingdom will put their clocks on an hour, and begin British Summer Time. This lopping an hour off the beginning of the day and putting it on at the end will last until October 28, 1962, when clocks will be put back to Greenwich Mean Time for the winter.

This is the second year that day light-saving has been extended to the end of October. ★ AIRPORT TOURS: Qantas Empire Airways began tours of Sydney’s Kingsford-Smith International Airport in January. Two tours are conducted each day, leaving Qantas House, Hunter Street, City, at 9.30 a.m. and at 2 p.m. Customers are returned to the same spot three hours later.

Travel to the airport (about four miles from the centre of Sydney) will be by bus. Airport installations will be inspected, including Qantas facil ities for maintenance, servicing, training and cargo and passenger handling divisions. There will also be a close-up look at Qantas aircraft.

Tours will end with a visit to the Overseas Terminal where customers can buy refreshments and souvenirs (but, alas, cannot patronise the duty free shop).

Cost of tour is 10/- for adults and 5/- for children aged 5-12, Under fives are free. Reservations by ring ing Qantas in Sydney (80-369). ★

Duty-Free In Christ

CHURCH; Christchurch airport has the distinction of introducing the first duty-free shop in New Zealand. It is hoped thereby to “attract tourists to New Zealand.”

Most of Christchurch’s international traffic comes from Australia, on TEAL and Qantas services, but one TEAL service to Fiji does originate in Christchurch. Additionally, it is a favourite hopping-off place for McMurdo Sound and points east, west and south in the Antarctic, clients be ing strictly Russian, American, Aus tralasian and other technicians and scientists. ★ SPANISH VISAS: Good news for Australians and New Zealanders visit ing Spain is that visas are no longer required for visits of three months or less. Previously, although visas were neither difficult nor expensive to obtain, they allowed for only three exits and entrances during a three months period—and these are soon used up by the tourist who has any ideas of wandering back and forth into Gibraltar or Portugal from the Spanish side of the border.

CEYLON, TOO: Australians and New Zealanders are amongst a bunch of a dozen other nationals who now can visit Ceylon for a maximum of a month without a visa. Previously Australasian tourists had to go through a complicated rigmarole to get into Ceylon for a few days. ★

Hotel And Motel Guides:

Two new 1962 Official Accommoda tion Guides are now available. One covers New South Wales and Can berra; and the other Queensland and Papua-New Guinea. They are pub lished by Mrs. D. G. Bremner, GPO Box 2231, Sydney, NSW, to whom all enquiries about distribution should be addressed. If you just want one copy for personal use, shipping, air line and Government Tourist Bureau officers in Australia will supply you.

The Motel Federation of Australia has also published its first directory of 200 member motels, each with a locality map and list of amentities.

These cover the whole of Australia, from Geraldton in Western Australia to Cairns in North Queensland. All Federation motels have the MFA sign outside. A central reservation service has been established at 219 Miller St., North Sydney, NSW, and the guide is obtainable from this address also, at no charge. ★

By Flying-Boat To The

SNOWY: A new use for flying-boats and a new use for the man-made Lake Eucumbene, right in the middle of the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Elec tricity Scheme in the Australian Alps, has been organised by Airlines of New South Wales—a subsidiary of Ansett-ANA. Two week-end tours are offered departing Sydney’s Rose Bay in Sandringhams at 8 a.m. each Sat urday in the summer months and arriving at Lake Eucumbene i\ hours later. Passengers then have a choice of a two-days coach tour of the Snowy Mountains scheme or two days trout fishing in the mountain, lake.

The first tour costs £24—air-fare, bus tour and overnight hotel accom modation included. If you fish instead of bus-touring it costs only £l5 in clusive for the weekend. Flying-boat returns to Sydney on Sunday evening. ★ CPAL IN PACIFIC: Canadian Pacific Airlines Ltd. withdrew its DC6B aircraft from the Sydney-Van couver service at end of January and are now using Britannia turbo props—right through to Edmonton, if you wish, where you can pick up a CPAL DCS jet for the over-the-Pole hop to Amsterdam.