The Educational Tour of New Zealand board game was introduced in the 1950s by the Auckland company Thomas Holdsworth and Sons, and sold by the thousands until production ceased in the early 1980s. The original board design, by Christchurch artist Dudley Bain, inspired this 1989 painting by Ruth Watson. Thomas Holdsworth and Sons formed in 1939 to make wooden jigsaw puzzles, and was still operating in 2012 under the trade name Holdsons. The fourth generation of the Holdsworth family then worked for the company, which still sold some of its original games such as snakes and ladders.