IDEAL RETREAT.

Waikato Times, Volume 121, Issue 20284, 28 August 1937, Page 24 (Supplement)

IDEAL RETREAT.

HOTEL IN THE ARCTIC. 650 MILES FROM TIIE POLE. (Times Air Mail Service). LONDON, July 22. The world's northernmost, hotel has .lust opened—only 650 miles south of the North Pole, says the Daily Express. I-f is a red wooden hut, formerly occupied by Norwegian coalminers. New Aalesund, Spitzhergen, is the name of the place. Hotel-keeper is ' Mrs Borgen, sister-fn-law of famed Arctic explorer Adolf -Hoel, proud of her kitchen. Hirst customers: three Finnish scientists. They arp there for a month. Every 18 hours they send a balloon up Into the stratosphere. Balloons are equipped with radio which automatically transmits temperature at different altitudes. Over tlie Arctic It’s twice as warm as it Is over the Equator. Finns are -cheerful. Young meteorologist Niilo Raunlo keeps hotel alive with rollicking songs. Including Finnish version of “John Brown's Body.” Next- customer was a Londoner— I .just a tourist, there for a fortnight's ! holiday! He Is pavement-light manufacturer! John Healey. His chest is weak, he doesn't like j crowds, so lie always takes an Arctlo ! holiday. His wife likes the south j so she goes there. “I came hero dressed up like an Eskimo.” lie said, "and all I need is 1 an English summer outfit.” Settlement of Empty Hut®. Apart from the hotel, New Aalesund is uninhabited. There is a settlement of empty | huts. Goal-mining failed, after 13 years of struggle. Hangar from which Nobile started on ill-fated airship flight in 1928 is a giant skeleton. The man who told me about New Aalesund landed there at midnight. The sun was high In the sky. Only a greenish shadow on the glaciers showed that it was not midday. As lie crossed field to hotel, snow melted lo mud below, swallow-tailed Arctic terns circled overhead, squawk ing and peeking angrily at his camera ! II sounds an ideal retreat for tired business men. There's only one drawback. It's l on the telephone.