travel

Tourist Plans

For New Guinea

Highlands

travel

Tourism has at last been given a shot in the arm in New

Guinea’s swiftly-growing High

lands areas through the forma tion of a Highlands board of the P-NG Tourist and Travel Asso ciation. Committees of the board

are being formed throughout

Highlands areas, and there is a move to form others on the coast, at Lae and Madang.

THE board is encouraging tours through the Highlands, and the formation of tourist bureaux at tached to various Local Government Councils. It is planning to organise publicity and brochures, and also aims to co-ordinate tourist activities throughout the New Guinea main land.

A recent meeting of the Highlands board, held at Kainantu, was told that even the Southern Highlands of New Guinea had excellent tourist potential. The less-developed native people, coupled with ideal photo graphic country, a good climate, fresh vegetables and attractive lakes, were a “sound foundation” for tourism. A new airstrip was to be build at Mendi, The board hopes to encourage native Local Government Councils to help develop tourism by building safari villages, and providing lunch areas and sing-sings for tourists making day visits.

The Kainantu meeting reported that the next Goroka Show will be held in the second or third weekend of May, 1966, and the chairman of the board, Mr. S. Fox, said he hoped those shows would be held annually in future.

AN international aerodrome was opened on the atoll of Rangiroa, 200 miles north-west of Tahiti, in mid-August. The airstrip is more than 7,000 feet long, and will be used by a DC4 to connect Rangiroa with Tahiti twice a week.

Opening the airport, the Governor of French Polynesia, Mr. Jean

urani, said: “The regular cou pons, which the inauguration of s aerodrome will permit, will open a new life for the people of the aamotu] atolls, which until now ve been isolated.”

Rangiroa, which was previously inected with Tahiti by Bermuda ing boat, will be the scene of the

>rld Spearfishing Championship

m September 1-7. Representatives m 15 countries will take part.

Hiree members of the International jarfishing Federation arrived in hiti in August en route to Rangiroa arrange safety measures for the itest. Besides the regulation canoe Idler in each contestant’s canoe, re will be an official shark iter in diving gear, equipped with anti-shark gun loaded with ex sive-tipped spears to protect the itestants against shark attacks. iach group of contestants will ;> be accompanied by a boat lipped with walkie-talkie radio >aratus to call to the scene any ; of five doctors standing by for ergencies. following the Rangiroa contest, arfishermen from at least 10 intries will compete at Noumea a Cup of the Pacific.

TOURIST brochure is to be issued soon by the New Hebrides adominium Government for the reasing number of tourists calling the New Hebrides, mainly from stralia and New Zealand. A Vila ssage says that while the tourists by no means be described as an ux, they do show that visitors are Tested in the New Hebrides.

IR-INDIA, in conjunction with Partitours of Sydney, and nt’s Travel Service of Suva, is rently selling 15-day tours of from Sydney and return, for y £AI43. The tours are available ween November 9 and February This price is for a minimum of i persons travelling, and is called Budget Tour. A Standard Tour, ering the same itinerary, is ilable at £l73—the difference inly being in the accommodation. •assengers leave Sydney by Air ia 707 on a Tuesday morning, ving at Nadi after lunch. For Budget Tour, accommodation is the Lautoka Hotel, and the gramme from then on is: Vednesday: Sightseeing in the rning. Afternoon free.

"hursday ; Drive to Suva, via draki.

travel

Friday ; Morning tour of Suva.

Afternoon free.

Saturday : Full day excursion to Naselai, by car and launch.

Sunday : Free day in Suva.

Monday ; Morning cruise on the 00100100. Afternoon free.

Tuesday : Free day in Suva.

Wednesday : Depart by car for Reef Lodge Hotel, near Sigatoka.

Thursday to Sunday: Free time at Reef Lodge.

Monday: By car to Nadi. Stay at the Skylodge Hotel.

Tuesday: Free day in Nadi area.

Wednesday: Depart by Air-India for Sydney, arriving about 10 a.m.

The Budget Tour includes economy class air travel at excursion rates, travel in Fiji on a seat-in-a-car basis, accommodation on a bed and breakfast basis excepting Suva where no meals are provided; twin rooms with bath at all centres except Lautoka; lunch at Rakiraki, and on the full day tour to Naselai. The Standard Tour includes accom modation with dinner, bed and breakfast except at Suva where bed and breakfast only are provided.

Those on the Standard Tour stay at the Cathay Hotel, Lautoka, and the Grand Pacific Hotel, Suva. The Budget tourists stay at the Hotel Lautoka, and Loloma Serviced Flats, Suva.

THE New Hebrides Condominium Government has decided to bring in new regulations under which people who want to export old carv ings and other articles of historical or artistic interest must first get a Government permit.

A report from Vila says that there is great concern about the number of traditional carvings and statues being taken out of the islands by art collectors. It is feared that traditional carvings like the great wooden gongs and masks still to be found in the older New Hebridean villages will all be taken away unless something is done to safeguard them.

Under the new regulations, anyone who wants to sell items of New Hebridean art must now tell the Government first, so that the authorities can have a chance of buying them for the New Hebrides.

• PlM's schedules for cruises in the Islands appear this month on page 142.