Come to NZ: Mark Twain called it “Paradise found”

New Zealand could now be rated as an ‘exotic’ travel destination.

In the late 1800s, US author Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clements) was perhaps the first international literary luminary to visit and publicise New Zealand. Twain found the “land of superb scenery” irresistible.

He wrote about the snowy grandeurs, the mighty glaciers and “beautiful lakes”.

The fiords were, he wrote, “wonderous rivals” to those found in Norway and Alaska. After his historic sojourn, Twain expostulated that “our stay has been too brief; still, we are not unthankful for the glimpse which we have had of it.”

First travel agent to cash in on New Zealand as an “exotic” travel destination was believed to be Thomas Cook and Son. The first government-backed tourism promotion organisation, the Tourist and Publicity Department, was established in 1901.

Through its NZ and international network, the department’s role was to promote New Zealand to the world. Now called Tourism New Zealand, it is reputed to be the oldest bureau of its kind in the world.

Twain called New Zealand “visually stunning.”
 

As in the case of Mark Twain, the editors of Time magazine were overwhelmed by the visually stunning beauty of New Zealand.

In its first cover story on NZ in 1977, Time rhapsodised about the country being “a photographer’s paradise … one of the world’s most beautiful nations.”

Expounds Time: “Until 1973, New Zealand seemed to be a sanctuary … unpolluted, almost undiscovered.” The magazine informed its global readership of the “extravagant” beauty of the country.

It’s time for a rest, said Twain.
 

“The velvet green hills and valleys; white snow draped peaks; and streams with trout as big as a man’s arm.”

This South Pacific paradise attracts tens of thousands of international visitors each year.

To come across Mark Twain, it is hard to realise that he worked for the Murderer’s Row of 
frontier western journalism, the California Territorial Enterprise, in 1863. 

When you put that Mark Twain up against the Mark Twain in “roughing it” in the thick of God’s country, New Zealand, it’s like we were talking about a different fellow. 

But, with a bushy auburn moustache "and the eyes of a wolf" he wrote a book about it.  It is one of his 25 best-ever books.

Main: Twain found time to travel the world and complete a “sell-out” lecture tour and visited some “extravagant” towns to boot. His book, Roughin’ It, tells the amazing story.

Mark Twain - Writer