ABSTRACT
There was much to celebrate. The motor car had opened up the bush and mountains of the Australian state of Victoria to mass recreation, to the extent that there was even a car park at the summit of Mount Kosciusko (McKenry, 1978, pp31–35). In pressing for visitor accommodation, a speaker in the debate on the Tongariro National Park Bill, in October 1922, described New Zealand’s national parks as ‘the most wonderful picnicking-ground and place for sport’. Visitors had only ‘to get into their motor-cars, carry with them their tents and other gear, as well as food, and camp out on the wayside’ (New Zealand Parliamentary Debates, 1922, vol cxviiic, pp229–231). The construction of motor roads, and extensive advertising in the Canterbury newspapers, attracted such large numbers that it became worthwhile to stage competitive winter sports, and for the New Zealand government to advance £1500 for further improvement to the Mount Cook hotel. Winter traffic had come to exceed summer flows to the national park by the 1940s (Pearce, 1980).
