Around New Zealand with Reed
Far away in the lonely South Pacific sun-sparkling ocean, lying athwart the track of the temperate trade winds, are the lovely islands of New Zealand. …
To arrive in New Zealand is to step over the threshold of a gallery full of new delights, for nowhere else in the world is so much natural beauty and so many varied scenic splendours concentrated in so small a place.
From New Zealand: Land of Colour, Wellington: AH & AW Reed, 1964
From the mid 1950s the Reed publishing house began to develop a range of products for the new and lucrative tourist market, which had opened up through more affordable air travel.
At the time, cheap colour cameras were not available. Reed capitalised on a partnership with Japanese printing firm Kyodo that provided access to new colour printing technologies, allowing Reed to create a fresh range of lavish books, slides and postcards.
The 'Kowhai Gold Colour Books', small pictorial guides to regions of New Zealand, which made perfect souvenirs. Box sets of 35mm 'Kiwi Slides' were sold at tourist resorts, bookshops and chemists. A 'Kiwi Folder' provided postcards to send to friends and family.
The New Zealand depicted in these products overflows with adjectives. The land and its people (especially Māori) are described as 'romantic', 'delightful' and, especially, 'colourful'. New Zealand is a feast for the senses, a wonderland of exotic sights and experiences.
The products were designed to show off New Zealand in its best (if not its true) light. Reed Managing Editor Ray Richards explained to photographer B Hill:
We have learned by hard and long experience that the slide-buying public, as a whole, prefer an 'over-coloured' slide to one which is perhaps perfectly natural in its intensity or lack in intensity of colour.1
The images and text in this online exhibition are extracted from Reed's Kowhai Gold Colour Books. They allow you to travel virtually through Reed's New Zealand, from Romantic Northland to adventurous Queenstown.
This online exhibition was created with the assistance of Reed Publishing NZ to accompany the 2007 National Library Gallery exhibition 'Good Books Make Good Citizens: 100 Years of Reed Publishing'.
Go to the Reed Publishing website
1 Ray Richards, Letter to B Hill, 17 April 1959. Alexander Turnbull Library, Manuscripts Collection, 79-153-50/02.
Kia ora, and welcome to the beginning of your tour.
Surf and sunshine at Sandy Bay - welcome to the northern tip of New Zealand.
The Parnell Swimming Baths in Auckland, New Zealand's Queen City.
The 'Glow-worm Grotto', one of the many attractions of the Waitomo Caves.
'Citizens enjoy a weekday lunch hour on a lawn near town hall.'
The famous Pancake Rocks at Punakaiki, a favourite tourist destination.
This booklet sung the praises of New Zealand's 'garden city'.
'Happy landings on the eternal snows' at Mount Cook.
An unusual summer view of the Coronet Peak ski lift.
Goodbye, and haere ra: the final page from 'Rotorua: colourful wonderland'.
