Pacific

Some Tahiti Excursions For Those In A Hurry

Paulette Vienot of Papeete, who has 15 years of travel business behind her and is founder and manager of Tahiti Nui Travel, has mapped out some excursion variations that the tourist can take from Papeete. These give those who have only a day in Tahiti (such as passengers on Northern Star or Southern Cross ) a choice of tour to suit

their pockets.

HEY give visitors with more time a chance to do the island roughly. !~)ay Tour of Papeete : This is by /ate car and includes lunch at the yal Tahitian Hotel or Hotel lone and lasts from 11 a.m. to op.m. Shops, waterfront, old colo l buildings are visited and there time for swimming at a local tch. With four persons per car t is sll each.

Tour of the Island : This can be de by private car or (Thursdays y) by motor coach. All places of toric interest are visited and lunch included. With four persons in a it costs sl7; by bus it is sl2. tension of the car tour to Tautira i a canoe trip to The Pari (on hiti-iti or Little Tahiti), costs $5 ra. Duration of round the island ir by car or bus is 9.30 a.m. to 4 n. If the extension to Tautira, etc., included departure is 8 a.m. and urn to Papeete is 6 p.m.

Night Tours of Papeete : These irs include visits to Quinns, La yette and, if possible, a hotel where jre is a Tahitian floor show. With inks but no meal, cost is $lO per rson, four to a car; if dinner is to included the cost is sl4.

Glass-Bottom Boat Tour : Tourists n explore the lagoon and reefs off peete through the glass panel in s bottom of a boat built for this rpose. A guide and native diver ac mpany the tour and refreshments e served on board. The tour is on turdays only, between 2 p.m. and 30 p.m. Charge is $3.50 per person.

Le Truck Tour: A chance to travel the traditional Tahitian truck—the cal version of the country bus —is ailable every Friday. This one is pecially for ardent photographers ho are given an opportunity to take ctures of net throwing, coconut tree imbing, dancing, etc. The tour lasts

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from 9 a.m. to noon and the cost per person is $6.90.

New Hotels In Fiji

And Papua

NEW hotels in both Fiji and Papua opened for business recently.

They are: The Reef Lodge Hotel, at Koro toga, Fiji; and The Lamington Hotel, Popondetta, Northern District, Papua.

While the Reef Lodge is aimed mainly at Fiji’s increasingly impor tant tourist trade, Lamington Hotel, initially anyway, will be taking up the slack in what was formerly a total lack of accommodation for the travelling public in this area. Tourists to P-NG, however, will find this Northern District of Papua one of the most pleasant and attractive to Europeans.

Reef Lodge was formerly the home of Mr. Barry Philp, who built the New Mocambo Hotel at Nadi air port. It has been added to and offers modern accommodation to suit the discriminating tourist. Korotoga is a stretch of the most pleasant beach in Viti Levu and the new hotel is 14 miles on the Nadi side of Korolevu Beach resort. It is 60 miles from Nadi international airport and about 87 from Suva. Unforunately, since the disastrous floods of mid-March which swept away the Sigatoka River bridge a few miles east of Korotoga, the hotel is approachable only from the Suva end of the Queen’s Road, This hotel as well as having the beach at its front door-step also has

an attractive swimming pool.

The Lamington Hotel was opened only in February. It is owned by Lamington Hotels Ltd. in which one of Papua’s Big Firms, Steamships Trading Cos. Ltd., has a majority shareholding.

The hotel is at Popondetta, head quarters of the Northern District, It opened with six double rooms which will be increased to 10 double rooms by the end of May. Each room has shower and toilet. Bedrooms are in detached blocks, the main building

"Pacific Islands Monthly" is a member of the Australian National Travel Association and the Pacific Area Travel Association.

containing dining-room, lounge public and saloon bars, etc.

Tariff, including all meals, is £4/10/- per day.

There is a daily DC3 air service (except on Sundays) between Port Moresby and Popondetta, WbfJ 0 * n

Port Moresby

ALTHOUGH topees are out of fashion in the South Pacific, a white topee has become the insignia of Fred Turner of Port Moresby who has gone into the conducted tour business as Turner’s Tropic Tours.

He arranges full or half-day tours at £lO or £5 per car respectively and would-be clients are asked to contact him through PO Box 521, Port Moresby, or through All World Tours, Port Moresby, travel agents— and to “Look for the Man in the White Topee”.

The full-day tour leaves Port Moresby at 9.30 a.m. and visits Bomana War Cemetery, the Nazareth J? 1 ™ 8 * 0 ?, on Lajoki River, Rouna ads ’. Hombrum Bluff, Sogen rubber growing area and Sirmumu Dam.

The half-day tours cover the town of Port Moresby and its environs.

A Holiday In Fiji For Bowlers rpOURS that combine a holiday A Fiji with an opportunity to tal part in a bowling carnival are beir organised in Australia by Partiton °f Sydney and Adelaide in conjun tion with Pan American Airways.

There are two separate tours—or for men bowlers and the other ft women bowlers. The Men’s Bowlir Carnival (wives are invited) leave Sydney by Pan-Am on June 25 an returns on July 9. Apart from pla] ing bowls, visits will be made to Lai toka and Korolevu as well as t Suva. All inclusive cost of tours £A23O.

The women’s tour leaves Sydne on July 2 and returns on July 1( This costs only £AIBB and husband can go along. (Probably the orgar isers can give special quotes in case where both husband and wife ar bowlers and both want to stay fo the whole three weeks of the Sout Pacific Bowling Carnival.) Guam Welcomes Tourists rPHE American mid-Pacific Terri A tory of Guam which for so lonj was a US military base and a se curity area closed to most civilian has dropped its guard and is now ii the race for tourists.

Guam is the most southerly of th< Marianas but has been a US posses sion since the end of the Spanish American war in 1898, although th< rest of the Marianas, Marshalls am Carolines have been successively Ger man, Japanese and (after 1945) j Trusteeship Territory administered fy the United States. Agana is the capi

and the island is the only free 5 area in US territory, be Government has now estab d a Tourist Commission under direction of a former executive of Hawaii Visitors’ Bureau and ways being devised of attracting a ;a of Pacific tourists to the island :h is a blend of modern America old Spain. ominion Line ships George An and Francis Drake are already :ing monthly calls there on a ser between Australia and New Zea l and the Far East (Hong Kong, mosa and Japan). Pan-American call at Guam on their Honolulu lila services. ise For Christmas IE P&O-Orient company’s 30,000ton vessel Arcadia has been sen to make the line’s popular nds cruise this Christmas. She will re Sydney on December 18 and irn there on December 31 after ing at Auckland, NZ, Nukualofa Vavau, Tonga, and Suva, Fiji. r estivities will include a Christmas ; party and traditional Christmas ner with all the trimmings some ;re at sea between Tonga and ra. 7 ares range from £AIO3 (tourist) 1 £AI42 (first class).

Abroad

"Wales" Has New West End Home PRACTICALLY every Australian and New Zealand visitor to Lon don in the last 28 years has crossed trails at the Bank of New South Wales, 47 Berkeley Square.

All were sorry to learn that because their number had grown too many for the premises, this branch was re moved to Sackville Street, off Picca dilly, in mid-March. The new pre mises will cope with the flood of Down Under visitors but many will miss the friendly associations of the historic building on the Square where nightingales might once have sung— even though it was necessary to crowd six deep round the letter counter in the summer.

Berkeley Square, in the heart of London’s West End, was once part of the gardens of Berkeley House, built by the first Lord Berkeley early in the 18th century and No. 47 was almost as old as the Square. It was

built in 1745.

Because late in the 18th century it became the home of John, 2nd Earl of Chatham and of William Pitt, England’s youngest Prime Minister, it is regarded as an historic building, like that further up the Square where Clive of India once lived.

For this reason no additions to the building were permitted and to ac commodate the increasing number of customers and inquirers after letters, travel information and friends, new premises were necessary.

The Bank of NSW opened at No. 47 in 1936. During the war it be came the rendezvous of Australian and New Zealand servicemen and in the years since has provided the same service for Australasian businessmen, tourists and thousands of youngsters on working or hitch-hiking holidays in Europe.

By Sea To Singapore

Those headed towards Malaysia from Australia might like to consider doing the trip by sea. The Blue Funnel Line has just added the ultra modern, 20 knot, 8,000 ton cargo passenger liner Centaur on the Western Australian-Malaysia run, providing a three-weekly service be tween Fremantle and Singapore for up to 200 tourists. It’s comfort plus.