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Tags: Australia Travel / Extreme Sports / Stunts / Queensland Travel / → All Tags

Queensland Will Let You Act Out The Movie Stunts Of Your Dreams

When we're on vacation, being set alight or jumping off tall buildings is not exactly high on our list of must-dos. But everybody's different, and if you've dreamed of performing stunts like you see in the movies, then on the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia, you can find just the right place to spend a day.

The Movie Stunt Experience is a day out that still has the thrills and spills of a typical Gold Coast theme park, but you're the one doing the spilling. If you book the A$299 ($275) full day program, experienced stunt people will first teach you and then let you try film fighting choreography, flying on a wire, commando-style abseiling, falling from a pretty great height and, perhaps scariest of all, being set on fire. So far, every tourist has come out alive. See if you can break the record.

Related Stories:
· Movie Stunt Experience [Official Site]
· Move Over Lara, This Is My Scene [The Age]
· Queensland Travel Guide [Jaunted]

Tags: Best Job In The World / Best Experience In The World / Travel Contests / Ben Southall / Twitter / Australia Travel / Hamilton Island / Tourism Queensland / → All Tags

'Best Job In The World' Winner Ben Southall Looking For Four Assistants

We're already almost two months into Brit Ben Southall's six-month term as "Island Caretaker" of Queensland's Hamilton Island, and he's definitely received more criticism than praise for his work showcasing his travels around the islands of the Great Barrier Reef. This privilege to travel around, live in, and document a paradise on earth is the result of his winning Tourism Queensland's contest to fill the position dubbed "Best Job In The World."

Apparently, the hours have been long and the fun too time-consuming, and Ben hasn't been the best at his job requirements of blogging, twittering and vlogging his experiences. So he's seeking four assistants! It's your second chance at "The Best Job In The World," even if it's really just the second best job in the world.

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Tags: Virgin Blue / Hamilton Island / Australia Travel / Best Job in the World / Ben Southall / → All Tags

Virgin Blue Starts New Route, Direct to Best Job in the World

Virgin Blue says they've introduced their new Sydney to Hamilton Island route—they started flying it on Saturday—only "after close analysis," saying there's long been a clear demand from both domestic and international travelers to access the Whitsunday Island's main stop from Sydney, but we suspect it's actually a sudden demand: everybody wants to see how Best Job in the World winner Ben Southall is doing.

It's surely no coincidence that Virgin Blue's route has started up just a couple of days after Ben arrived for his six-month residence on Hamilton Island. Now that he is Twittering and blogging his way around the Whitsunday Islands, it's no wonder Virgin Blue has found a bunch of extra customers.

If you want to check out Ben's lifestyle or have your own personal reasons for hitting the Whitsundays—sun, sand and surf still count—Virgin Blue has daily direct flights from Sydney. We found flights as low as A$145 ($115, one way) but you have to book a bit ahead of time to get 'em that cheap. Say hi to Ben for us!

Related Stories:
· Island Caretaker Blog [Official Site]
· Hamilton Island Gets a Brit for Best Job in the World [Jaunted]
· Virgin Blue Coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Gluehwein Effects]

Tags: Swine Flu / Australia Travel / → All Tags

Swine Flu Takes Advantage of Cheap Flights to Australia

Although we travelers and city dwellers here at Jaunted haven't yet fallen ill with any suspicious coughing, we do like to keep a respectful eye on where the Swine Flu monster is making landfall, despite the overhype.

Since it seems like everyone has been daydreaming about grabbing a cheap flight to Australia lately, hearing that swine flu has arrived in the the land of kangaroos didn't shock us much. Over the weekend, the first confirmed case of swine flu was reported in Australia, when a woman who flew from Los Angeles to Brisbane gave a "weak positive" response to the virus test.

On the up side, authorities don't believe that the woman was contagious while she was on the flight, so although they are contacting fellow passengers, this single case doesn't appear to be the beginning of an Aussie pandemic.

As in other airports around the world, screening and testing procedures are in place at Australia's main hubs for flights that could carry passengers infected with the swine flu, and as a result the locals aren't all that concerned. In any case, H1N1 has got to be a pretty hearty virus if it wants to survive those ridiculously long flights all the way Down Under.

Related Stories:
· Passengers From Swine Flu Flight Found [The Age]
· Is Swine Flu Hysteria a US Tourism Conspiracy? [Jaunted]
· Swine Flu Coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: jnxyz]

Tags: Train WiFi / Train Travel / WiFi / Australia Travel / → All Tags

Queensland Trains Will Soon Get Some WiFi Love

If you are lucky enough to live in southeast Queensland, you might be able to email your boss right from the commuter train—just make sure you don’t tell her how you really feel about your annual review. New wireless equipment is being installed to allow security footage to be streamed to the train’s headquarters in Brisbane, and commuters are going to get the WiFi runoff. Hopefully, American politicians have an idea like this in mind when they start to finalize those new high-speed trains.

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Tags: New Routes / Australia Travel / Queensland Travel / Virgin Blue / → All Tags

Virgin Blue Reckons Queensland's Gonna Be Big

Virgin Blue taketh away--the Aussie low cost carrier cut 28 flights from high frequency routes recently--but they also giveth. Jaunted tipster Tuddy let us know that Virgin Blue started flying five new routes this week.

Four of the routes are out of the northern Queensland city of Townsville, heading to other Queensland destinations Cairns, Rockhampton and the Gold Coast, as well as down to Aussie capital Canberra. They've also started flights on the Canberra to Hobart route.

These new routes are a big deal for Queensland tourism and especially for Townsville--overnight there are almost 70% more possibilities for flying out of town. We're wondering if Virgin Blue knows something we don't know and Queensland is about to become a despite-the-recession tourist hotspot. With route opening specials as low as A$46 ($33) it's very tempting to try it out ourselves.

Related Stories:
· Virgin Blue Launches New Townsville Flights [news.com.au]
· Virgin Blue Flying A Bit Less Often [Jaunted]
· Queensland Travel Guide [Jaunted]

[Photo: JamesDPhotography]

Tags: Best Job in the World / Interviews / Angelene Orth / Hamilton Island / Tourism Queensland / Travel Contests / → All Tags

A 'Best Job in the World' Candidate Sets Her Eyes on the Prize

We spent some time the other day talking with Angelene Orth, a candidate for the Tourism Queenland's "Best Job in the World" contest in which hopefuls are vying for the chance to work on an island in the Great Barrier Reef for six months.

The responsibilities of the Island Caretaker/Travel Correspondent job (salary: $150,000 AUD plus living and transportation costs) include "taking care" of the Great Barrier Reef, exploring the area and reporting back to the world wide web via video, photos, blogs and other "media commitments."

Orth, 27, and already employed by public relations firm Weber Shandwick, told Jaunted that she's got what it takes to leave the New York behind and settle down for six months Down Under.

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Tags: Jetstar / Airlines / Passengers / Seats / Seating / → All Tags

Jetstar Forces Overweight Passenger to Pay for Two Seats

Making overweight passengers pay more sure is a thorny issue, but Australian low-cost carrier Jetstar is taking it to the people, by making a 350-pound (160kg) passenger pay for two seats.

Whether you agree with this practice or not, Jetstar's made it worse for themselves by doing practically everything else wrong along the way. When passenger Samantha Scafe made the booking Jetstar told her she wouldn't have to pay for an extra seat but that suddenly changed when the flight departure time got closer.

Even worse, Jetstar managed to allocate Scafe two seats that were separated by the aisle--and they made the same error on her return trip. All that doesn't make Jetstar sound like the most customer-friendly airline. And Scafe's fighting them in the anti-discrimination court. We probably would be too.

Related Stories:
· Jetstar Charges Overweight Passenger Two Seats [news.com.au]
· Jetstar Gives Overweight Passenger Seats Either Side of Aisle [news.com.au]
· Fat Passengers Weighing Down Airlines [Jaunted]

Tags: Qantas / V Australia / Airlines / Airfare Sales / → All Tags

With V Australia at Its Heels, Qantas Steps Up With Cairns Deal

As we get closer and closer to the launch date for V Australia's virgin flight from the U.S. to Sydney, it's no surprise that flying kangaroo Qantas is coming out with some extra-special deals. And we're loving it.

This month's deal is not bad at all: Qantas is offering a free stopover if you fly from Los Angeles, San Francisco or New York and end up in the northern Queensland town of Cairns, gateway to the Great Barrier Reef. For your stopover you can choose from Brisbane, Sydney or Melbourne, and even Auckland in New Zealand. Given that distances are truly vast Down Under, this is a great way to see two completely different parts of the country.

Airfares with the free stopover start from $898 (plus taxes) from the west coast which makes it comparable to V Australia's. The fares are valid for May through September (if you book by February 27) which might not seem the best time to visit Australia--remember, they're going through their summer heat wave right now--but if you're going to tropical Cairns, then you'll hit the dry season which is a great time to visit.

Related Stories:
· Five Airfare Sales We Like Right Now [news.com.au]
· V Australia Fares Make Us V Happy [Jaunted]
· Queensland Travel Guide [Jaunted]

[Photo of Cairns beach: Chad Dunbar]

Tags: Bike Sharing / Australia Travel / Biking / → All Tags

Brisbane Bikes Soon To Be Shared

Bike sharing is green, cheap and spreading like a planet-friendly plague. The latest place to catch the craze is Queensland's capital Brisbane, although their plan looks a little shakier this week.

Originally set to roll out a 2,000-bike program sometime in the middle of this year, there might be some delays now that one of the main contenders to run the bike share has pulled out. The company is blaming that "the deterioration of the global economic climate," as they so nicely put it, and will leave the risk up to someone else.

Now the Brisbane council's not quite sure when the bikes will be on the street, but they are sure that it'll happen, with around 150 drop-off and pick-up points across the city. Someday. Soon.

Related Stories:
· Bike Share Plan Still on Track [Brisbane Times]
· Even More (Nearly) Free Bikes In Europe [Jaunted]
· Bike Sharing coverage [Jaunted]
· Brisbane Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: marie-ll]

Tags: Laptop Travel / Queensland Travel / Facebook / Websites / Tourism Boards / Tourism Marketing / → All Tags

Queenslanders Not Backward in Going Forward With Facebook

You might not know about the cheesy 1980s marketing pitch for the north-eastern Australia state of Queensland: "Beautiful one day, perfect the next."

While tropical storms and embarrassing politicians might have spoiled this image of perfection, you can't say Queensland's not trying in the tourism game. They've even got an official Facebook page and we actually like it.

It's a lively page with people leaving messages on the "wall" (usually Queenslanders giving a really biased opinion), competitions to enter and useful info on festivals and events taking place around the state. And last time we checked, Queensland was the proud owner of 2,128 fans.

According to this Facebook page, Queensland's current logo is "Where else but Queensland?" A risky marketing strategy because actually, there are plenty of alternative answers to this rhetorical question. We'll be generous enough to leave it unanswered.

Related Stories:
· Queensland on Facebook [Official Site]
· Queensland Travel Guide [Jaunted]

Tags: Meltdownomics / Nudists / Nude Travel / Sex Travel / Australia Travel / → All Tags

Queenslanders Fix Economic Meltdown With More Sex

The economic meltdown obviously has an effect on tourism, and the northern Queensland White Cockatoo Resort knows it. That’s why the nudist resort is turning to sex parties and swinger guests to boost its diminishing bookings, with March 2009 designated an anything goes, adults only month.

The White Cockatoo has seen its fair share of raunchy guest behavior but banned that kind of naughty stuff a few years ago when (among other incidents) a pair of nudists in their 50s complained about "a rowdy display of balcony sex before breakfast."

After "indirectly" advertising this month of hedonism, the resort is almost fully booked for March. And yes, the resort owner really said this when asked why he'd reversed the ban:

Tough economic times call for stiff measures.

Our italics. But none of this over breakfast, please.

Related Stories:
· Orgies Return to Hedonistic Nude Resort at Mossman [Courier Mail]
· Nude Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: redteam]