The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-07-14

| concerning pidceS IN E1Jl where tHes
have never been.
The twelve DAYS of the little cruise
passed all too quickly. There was an
excursion to Ba, the old Fijian capital
and quaintest spot in the Islands.
another seven days cruise which | had
to forego; and then the trip to Samoa.
| 1t costs seyenty-five dollars for the
Samoa Tonga trip to Auckland and half
| as much for the direct voyage. My
advice to all tourists is: Stop at Suva,
cruise about FIJI for a month, then go
to Samoa. | doubt if many would care
for a full month of Samoa, the means
of communication between the Islands
being uncertain in the extreme. I put
in a week on Savaii, visiting the crater
| of the active volcano; but the steamer
| goes by the volcano, and even up to
| the spot where the molten lava flows
| into the sea. During the two days at
| Apia there is time sfor a run up to the
| slide at Papase 'ea, and even trip to
the lake in the crater of an adjacent
mountain. My expectations of Samoa
had been raised too high, yet month
among the Sanoans seemed to fly,
The Americans tried to buy Steven
| son IS home, q Vailima, - which is near
/
| lists hotel; but the German Governor
outbid them This is to be regretted,
although | believe the Governor is now
attempting to organize a Promotion
/ Committee and Improvement Assoeia
ton in Apia.
/ The three days stay of the steamer
at Tongan ports is all the tourist is
| likely to wish of Tonga The ship s
! boats oil him, 70 ba yaS
| of Vavau, and there are charming
walks everywhere; but 1 could not dis
cover single hotel in the group.
| T shall not try to describe the de-
| lightful sensations aroused by the first
view of Auckland harbor, but merely
state that on my way up the hill to
my stopping place | noticed what in
| America would have been considered
magnificent hotel site-an acre over
looking town and harbor. Just behind
Wellington there is another such SUI
perb hotel site, and there are several
about Dunedin. Why they are not
used puzzles the American, for every
other land known to the tourist has
at least one great caravansary famous
AS the rallying-spot from which most
| inland tours begin and end. On the
broad yerandas-tourists travel chiefly
in summer so the great piazza, as big
as the hotel itself, is a crying neces-
sity-the tourists take their before
and-after meal promenades, and here
I.thev exchange notes. 1t is the clear
ing-house of travel the tourists Ex-
ehange-the sitting-room for all, and
the very center of life. Given mod
ern, spacious, veranda surrounded hotel,
open to the four winds, the up-to date
tourist knows where to make his head
quarters, and is never lonely.
In America the houses are known
as one dollar a-day houses, two-dollar
houses, and so on up to five dollars;
and the traveller can usually judge by
the price what kind of accommodation
he will receive. Alasi he finds it not
SO in Australasia. Often the expensive
hotel is but the excuse for bar, and
the so-called boarding house, is
really the ''hotel' to which he is ac-
eustomed In Auckland and other
large centers of New Zealand there are,
of course, delightful, charming little
hotels {they are little to the Yankee
tourist); but he misses the one great
hotel about which the life of the city,
and perhaps entire country, revolves
itself New Zealand is entitled to one
great hotel 1t is her due. 1t is her
crying need if she really wishes the
tourist, and she should have it. Why
should not the cry Goodbye, old
man! Meet me at the Maori in New
Zealand be as familiar as is "Well,
l II see you next winter at Shepard 81
or III be at the Grand, Yokohama,
in the spring.? Offer the tourist to
New Zealand a distinctive palatial
rallying-poin and he will not neglect
the invitation.
AS an American, it was my patriotic
duty to be disappointed in Rotorua;
but / was not. It is unlike Yellow
stone: it has a charm totally different,
and all of its own. It would be Grim
inal for a Yankee tourist to give Ro-
torua the goby, yet the browning glory
of New Zealand is the Wanganui
River. There is nothing just like it,
just so beautiful of its kind, in all the
world There is stretch of the
Danube from Passau to Linz that RI
walls and might even surpass; but the
waters are milk-white, from the wash
of the clay, and the journey lasts for
but two hours, while the trip down the
Wanganui lasts for as many days The
other great lions of New Zealand are
OF course Butler and Otlra gOrges and
the wonderful sounds of the West
Coast. After these [ am tempted to
return to America via Tahiti, so as
not to double back over the old track;
but what American SO near can resist
a visit to that other America, the Aus
tralian Continent? However, l believe
the grand cruise of the South Pacific
is Hawaii, FIJI, Samoa, Tonga, New
Zealand, Rarotonga, Tahiti, and back
to America. OF course, there Will be
run over to Melbourne and Sydney;
and motorists will seek a larger field
on the big continent. I see by de-
spatches from Europe in the New Zea
land press that 10000 American mo-
torists are touring Europe, dispensing
&250,000 per diem. I believe that when
the great development of Austria
lasia really begins it win come from
the acknowledges axons strained
through America. In Hawaii every