British crime writer Dame Agatha Christie, surpassed only by the Bible and Shakespeare, was on the verge of international fame when she visited the West Coast for a world promotional tour for the British Empire Exhibition.
A British TV series in five parts, Traveling with Agathafollows her travels. It is presented by Sir David Suchet, who played Christie's iconic Belgian detective Hercule Poirot for almost 25 years.
Filming is underway and is expected to air on Britain's Channel 4 later this year. Filming is reportedly about to begin on the West Coast.
During her stay in New Zealand, Christie wrote numerous letters home to her family and took photographs of the trip.
Grandson Mathew Prichard put it all together in his 2012 book The Grand Tour.
Christie arrived in New Zealand aboard the steamer Manuka and left for Westport on July 10, 1922.
Letters in The Grand Tour It was raining cats and dogs and there was a thick mist in the Buller Gorge.
The next day it was still raining when they visited Denniston and met the manager's wife, while Christie's husband Archie went into hiding in the coal mine.
The next day they left through wind and rain for Greymouth and then on to Reefton to catch the train.
On July 13 they went to Punakaiki.
“There are beautiful nikau palms…it looks much more like a tropical landscape than South Africa,” Christie wrote.
Then we headed south to Hokitika with “the most beautiful views of the Southern Alps and Mount Cook in the distance, absolutely stunning”.
They saw a goldfisherman at work and then met “a strange old lady who looked like a dilapidated chicken”.
Christie was impressed with Lake Kaniere, which she described as “one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen”.
On July 15, the party walked 17 kilometres through the Otira Gorge, a year before the tunnel opened.
Although her first novel, The mysterious affair at Styleshad already been published when she came to New Zealand – and was in libraries here – but her fame was yet to come.
On her return she published Poirot investigates.
Christie never returned to New Zealand.