Tourism in New Zealand - First Steps
John Gully, Milford Sound 1883
Milford Sound has captured our imagination for generations. It's remote, where the ocean meets mountains, where fast-flowing rivers and waterfalls cascade off mountain faces, where impenetrable rain forests hug the coastlines climbing up to be transformed into alpine tundra. Located in and Te W膩hipounamu the place of greenstone, the
McKinnon Pass and Sutherland Falls
Department of Tourist and Health Resorts (1901)
By 1901, the New Zealand Government established the 鈥� the first dedicated central government tourist department in the world to run hotels around New Zealand. In the 1950s was later re-named THC of New Zealand. Led by Thomas Edward Donne, the department promoted 'tourist services and attractions to both domestic and international audiences though lantern-slide lecture tours, press articles, the distribution of post cards, photographs, guidebooks and pamphlets, and displays at overseas trade fairs...'
Donne introduced (large, round horned deer), and salmon to make New Zealand a 鈥榮porting paradise鈥欌��. Chamois (alpine antelope-goat) and to add charm to alpine landscapes. All of these, apart from salmon, are now considered a threat to New Zealand's ecology along with other introduced mammals such as possums, rats, and stoats. Read about
International tourism did not prove to be the 鈥榞old mine鈥� primarily due to New Zealand's isolation and international events such as World War I but domestic tourism grew solidly.
In these early years, the jewel in the crown was Rotorua, a centre of M膩ori entrepreneurship. Resorts were established in Te Aroha (Bay of Plenty), Hanmer Springs (North Canterbury), The Hermitage hotel at Aoraki/Mt Cook (first building in 1884) and bought by the government in 1896 with management take over by the Department of Tourist and Health Resorts. Other centres of tourism were Taup艒, Lake Waikaremoana, Te Puia Hot Springs, Waitomo, Milford Sound, Queenstown
In 1965, the challenged the exclusive access to the Milford Track with a FREEDOM Walk over the Easter holiday. This triggered a new era of hiking in New Zealand. Over time, three new huts were built to cater for FREEDOM Walkers: Clinton Hut, Lake Mintaro and Dumpling Hut in the Arthur Valley.
Homer Tunnels opens access to Milford Sound
The Homer Tunnel is named after William Henry Homer (1838鈥�1894) who suggested a road tunnel would open access to the tourism attraction of Milford Sound. Until this point, to get to Milford Sound, people could visit by sea or on foot, via the McKinnon Pass on the Milford Track.
Drilling through the Darran Mountain Range at the Homer Saddle was slow and treacherous process. Construction commenced in 1935 but with holdups due wet weather, avalanche risk and World War II, the tunnel was not completed until 1953. Today, the 1230 metre tunnel remains one-way, has a gradient down of 1:10 and is managed by traffic lights.
