MOTORISTS RETURN HOME

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 552, 3 January 1929, Page 8

MOTORISTS RETURN HOME

HUGE TRAFFIC REPORTED DRY CONDITIONS AGAIN Practically all roads are leading motorists back to Auckland again after Christmas and New Year tours that were carefully arranged and which, by reason of the weather, were changed nearly every day, sometimes several times in a day.

The 1925-19-9 holidays will be remembered with much the same leelings of those of two years ago when the weather also played havoc with holiday plans. Fortunately, a very considerable number of motorists were well on their trips before the downpours after Christmas, and the weather gods were sufficiently leniently' disposed to relent and give dryconditions to enable the parties to get their cars back to the city. Owing to the holidays being spread out somewhat more than usual, the motoring parties have not left the city in bunches, and the general experience has been that though there has been more traffic than ever on the roads, it has not appeared to be so crowded as last year. The heaviest traffic was on the New Plymouth-Auckland road, and the A.A.A. patrols have reported that there has been an unusually large number of Wellington and Wanganui cars on the roads north of Auckland. The wet weather had the effect of crowding trippers into the portion of the island where the roads were good, and Rotorua and that area generally saw strings of cars. The patrol at Arapuni reported: "Motorists from all over the island are here, inquiring about roads every, where.”

HUNDREDS OF INQUIRIES In no year has the A.A.A. had such a busy time. With a membership which eclipses the total of the combined other associations, its officials have been answering inquiries from 6 o’clock in the morning until any time up to 11.30 p.m. The wet conditions added to their troubles, and there v/ere hundreds of inquiries about the North, many of the drivers having secured their itineraries and then being in doubt as to how they would be affected by the conditions. In spite of the wet conditions there was very heavy traffic round the National Park, and many inquiries for the Taumarunui-Te Kuiti road. Coromandel, Bay of Plenty', and the Urewera all saw heavy traffic, but not so much as there would have been had the weather been good, as the roads in each district are liable to provide trouble.

MANY NOVICES A considerable number of novice drivers have been noticed on the roads, but most of them have been content to stick to the main roads, and the older motorists have continued their yearly' search for fields and pastures new. The huge increase in the membership of the A.A.A. has enabled the building up of a most efficient staff, and much of the touring manager’s time in the future will be devoted to finding new country for those enthusiastic members who will put up with some inconvenience if they can get off the beaten track. Though all the road gaps will not be closed by next Christmas, there is suen an immense amount of work being done at present that the touring conditions next year should be considerably bettered, and there will be some new loading in the Bay of Plenty area that is expected to make a good round trip available there.