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Page THE HERALD Wednesday April 1989 Concorde awes passengers in worldwide trip By VINCENT EG AN Travel Columnist Thomson News Service Last week brought one of those incongruous and paradoxical sights that linger long in the memory It was a hot and steamy after noon April on the legendary laidback island of Tahiti in the South Pacific when a supersonic Concorde came whistling out of the northeastern horizon and touched down at Faaa airport Just two hours and minutes earlier British Airways Capt KD Leney had lifted his 100passenger airplane off the tarmac at Honolulu Hawaii 2781 statute miles away from Papeete the ma jor city of Tahiti and of French Polynesia That was the fifth sector of a 24- day roundtheworld flight Average speed was miles km per hour Its daunting to think of how many weeks it might have taken ancient Polynesian explorers to that distance Even the presentday cruise ship Fair Princess which sailed from Papeete for Honolulu during Con cordes stopover was scheduled to take a full week A few more facts on Concordes ongoing performance for the statistically minded Between its departure from New York at noon on April l until its return on April Concorde will have flown 38215 statute miles at an average speed of miles km per hour with just over hours in the air It is expected that 14 official pointtopoint flightspeed records will be set by Concorde A total of 93 passengers each paid US for the unique journey Also on board are TV celebrity William Buckley Jr as Concordes guest lecturer and figurative hood ornament Mrs Buckley two British Airways co ordinators and lawyer Donald Pevsner who organized the un precedented tour on behalf of Lor raine Travel Bureau of Miami Flo Only about 30 of the passengers had previously flown on the super sonic airplane and even fewer had visited Tahiti Most of the passengers I spoke to during their stopover described themselves as thrilled and excited by the experience so far Today they are flying from Perth Western Australia to Col ombo Sri Lanka in three hours and id minutes approximately Concordes usual time on its four- aday flights between London and New York SOME GLITCHES Slipups and unforeseen glitches have inevitably cropped up Didnt Robbie Bums say something about best laid plans A woman with an injured right knee complained that her request for an aisle seat had been overlook ed Another couple assigned room at the Tahiti Hotel that was directly underneath some roofrepair work and at the previous evenings gala dinner had been charged for the Coke that they had ordered in place of the complimentary wine Such dif ficulties were quickly remedied by Pevsner No passenger list has been made public but the group includes a couple who won the grand prize in a New York state lottery a Calgary businessman an libel lawyer and scores of fairly ordinary although presumably well heeled tourists All of them were required to make full payment of the fare by the first week In December about four months before the start of their adventure That fare included all accommoda tion and a full set of activities at each of the stopovers In Tahiti they were offered a bus tour around the 120km cir cumference of the island with the obligatory stop at the black sands of Venus Point where the first Europeans landed in 1767 Then an officer of the Royal frigate made a point of noting in his journal that the young Tahitian women performed a great many droll wanton tricks The Concorde group however saw nothing droll nor wanton last week They spent another day sailing aboard the handsome computerizedsail liner Wind Song from the busy harbor of Papeete across 25 km of open water called the Sea of Moons to the moun tainous Island of more scenic and more Polynesian with little of the Frenchcolonial atmosphere of Papeete ONWARD UPWARD A week ago today the supersonicsetters settled into their seats and their sleek airplane roared up into a cloudless mid- morning sky to fly across the in ternational date line to a Sunday- morning arrival in Christchurch on New Zealands south island En route from New Zealand to Australia on Wednesday morning 40th anniversary NORVALCongratulations to Bob and Shirley Davis of Nerval who celebrated their wadding anniversary on April 9 Their son and four daughters in cluding Barbara and her husband Tom Elliott Linda Topping Pen ny Davis Bill and wife Lisa and Davis held open house for their parents in Presbyterian Church on April Six grandchildren as well as Shirleys mother Mrs Jean South of Flesherton enjoyed the party too Over close friends relatives and neighbors called on the happy couple and a display of and new pictures sparked a from everyone The after noon tea and coffee hour was served by the ladies of Presbyterian Church Following the open house family members attended dinner at the Ravine Restaurant Georgetown Bulk Food FOR ALL YOUR BAKING NEEDS Main Straff South Downtown Georgetown t Your copy is available at many of our conveniently located dealers like TARGET F06D STORE ST GEORGETOWN PICK UP YOUR COPY OF THE HERALD TODAY April the top half of Con cordes rudder fell off in flight at tracting unwanted worldwide at tention to the tour Capt the airlines senior Concorde cap tain later reported that the flight the approach to Sydney and the landing there had all been normal A replacement rudder section was immediately dispatched from London and the Concorde was to leave Sydney as scheduled yester day morning for Perth Western Australia a twohour the continent The rest of the itinerary will take Concorde to Colombo capital of Sri Lanka to Mombasa on Kenyas In dian Ocean coast for transfer to the wildlife sanctuary of Mara to Cape Town to London and back to New York on April According to Pevsner plans have been made for a second Con corde supersonic flight leaving New York Jan 28 and returning Feb 24 That itinerary will be much like the cur rent one with the addition of a two- day visit to the Indonesian island of Bali three nights in Rio de Janeiro and one night in Barbados Some stops on the current tour would be shortened or possibly eliminated to allow time for the additions TAKEN IN STRIDE It is perhaps a sign of the times hat the appearance on the remote island of Tahiti km north of the Tropic of Capricorn halfway between California and- Australia of one of the few existing super sonic passenger planes didnt engender the excitement that used to greet the airage marvel almost everywhere it went Tahitians have seen occasional visits of Air Frances Concorde carrying such political bigwigs as the president of France And the island is a regular refuelling stop of Airways on three flights each week between Los Angeles and Sydney which are popular not only with runofthemill tourists but with young travellers on a shoestring The youthful backpackers laden down with what appears to be their- own weight in travel equipment are to be seen almost everywhere in Tahiti and on neighboring Moorea Their budgets could be- badly bent in Tahiti where prices In general seem to be approx imately the same as in New York London or Tokyo As in those cities however its always possible to find ways of controlling ones travelling ex penses Example Hotel Ibis on the seafront promenade in Papeete offers double rooms for about Canadian including tax and is remarkably well sound proofed a major consideration in that noisy city GEORGETOWN CUSTOM CAR SOUND THE CAR STEREO EXPERTS 8772425 Although not as centrally located pensions guest homes and hotels are also available with prices as low as for a dormitory TRAVEL NOTEBOOK Here are notes on news of cur rent interest to travellers Air Canada this month in augurated a service to Zagreb Yugoslavias second largest city Commencing April departures from Toronto will be on Tuesdays Thursdays and Saturdays The same carrier until Sept is offering halfprice Executive Class fares for accompanying spouses of business passengers paying full fare to all North American destinations except Florida Both spouses must travel together in each direction and to the same destination The third annual Travel and Leisure ShoW at the International Centre Toronto will be held April The Quebec International Sum mer Festival will take place July to In Quebec City First held 21 years ago the Festival is describ ed by its organizers as the largest cultural event in the international Frenchspeaking world Clothing rations hep 12PIECE LUGGAGE SALE If youre constantly on the move you should have your own luggage thats why our 12piece luggage the Econobox is now only 999 with 12 pieces of delicious Kentucky Fried Chicken Just take a trip down to see us soon and youll find your luggage packed and ready for takeout from April until April 30 The Econobox This offer valid only in Milton Acton and Georgetown 14 MAIN STREET ACTON 853251 116AGUELPH STREET GEORGETOWN