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Story: Holidays

First-class lounge on the Monowai

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First-class lounge on the <em>Monowai</em>

Although air travel was becoming more popular, passenger steamships were still plying the Tasman after the Second World War.  This 1948 sketch depicts the luxurious first-class lounge of the Monowai, which carried many New Zealanders to and from Australia in the post-war years.

Using this item

Alexander Turnbull Library

Reference: B-011-025

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

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How to cite this page

Nancy Swarbrick, Holidays – Overseas holidays, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/artwork/40757/first-class-lounge-on-the-monowai (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Nancy Swarbrick, published 24 January 2013.