Down in New Zealand the Queenstown Winter Festival is on again, with ten days of craziness to mark the start of the winter ski season in the southern hemisphere.
Our favorite part of the festival is Mountain Mayhem day on Saturday. All kinds of weird stuff happens here, including the Dash for Cash which involves a ski race and an obstacle course in pursuit of a $500 prize.
But the best part of the day is the Suitcase Race, in which contestants toboggan down the mountain on suitcases. The rules say you should bring your own suitcase, although they apparently do have a few spares if, say, you're traveling with a lightweight backpack that might not make it down the mountain.
TripAdvisor has unveiled its 2008 Travelers' Choice top destination lists--but only for those prepared to give away their email address to download the list. We've done it so you don't have to, and the big gossip is that New Zealand is still a hot destination.
Just how popular is New Zealand? On the list of the Top 100 Destinations in the World, it's taken not only #1 position with Milford Sound, but also #2 with Queenstown. It gets another few nods with #37 Auckland, #46 Wanaka and #48 Christchurch so we clearly should all be hopping on the next possible Air New Zealand flight. Maybe one day New Zealand will have more tourists than sheep.
Our usual mentions of the New Zealand city of Christchurch are about half-naked women riding motorbikes through the streets. Since that sounds somehow inviting, at least for male travelers, we're a little distressed to hear the latest news of out of Christchurch: Tourists with accents sometimes get picked on.
Last weekend, a group of Danish and English tourists got more than heckled--a bunch of local men beat them up, after teasing them by saying "They speak funny, they sound funny." Given how amusing the New Zealand accent itself sounds, it's a real pot calling the kettle black situation here, but tell that to the poor tourists who ended up in hospital.
In the otherwise peaceful town of Christchurch, it was definitely a surprise event, and the locals are definitely worried that their reputation as a safe place to travel is getting tarnished. If it gets worse we'll all need to learn Kiwi English before our next trip.
You're not really down with roughing it but could warm up to the idea of volunteering in an exotic country? Enter Hands Up Holidays; it's 4-star travel with a purpose.
We first mentioned these guys a few months ago when they were organizing a pre-Mardi Gras trip to rebuild the bayou, with accommodations in a funky French Quarter hotel and ticket to a black tie gala included. Now eight new itineraries are up on their revamped website. Two in particular caught our eye.
A couple days ago, two pygmy sperm whales got stuck on a sandbar in New Zealand, sadly a common occurrence in the shallow waters off the Mahia Peninsula. As conservation workers struggled to help the animals, Moko, a dolphin that's frequently spotted in the area, swam up and guided the whales back out to sea. It was a real Flipper moment.
While animals do all the life saving around Mahia, humans do plenty of surfing. The water's not too toasty, but with a wetsuit, you'll be comfortable. Off the beach, the Mahia Peninsula Scenic Reserve has a two-mile hiking trail that offers scenic views of the coastline.
The area is in the Hawke's Bay region of New Zealand, which is famous for its wines. Dozens of vineyards welcome guests for tastings, and many of the spots also have restaurants where you can do lunch and toast to friendly dolphins.
Though Heathrow's T5 and Beijing's T3 are getting all the press, there's another world capital that's getting an airport update. Wellington has unveiled its new international terminal, called The Rock. It should be finished by the end of 2009.
The first stage of the project wrapped at the end of 2007, adding security and customs lanes, shopping and jet bridge improvements for international flights. The second half of the work will add more departure lounge seating, more bathrooms and a couple more international gates.
Of course airport officials hope the building's design will make it a destination:
The airport's South Coast location is represented by the inside aesthetics and outside shell of the building. Colored fragments of glass in the roof fissure let in a warm, natural light by day and backlighting at night creates a glow which will be seen from the air.
We shouldn't even need to mention it'll all be environmentally sound and heavy on green design elements. And, hey, it'll have free WiFi!
It doesn't really take much imagination to come up with the name OzJet for a budget airline in Australia. But when we're talking low cost carriers, we don't care so much about the name--it's all in the price. And OzJet is having a launch party tonight to kick off some more competition in the Australasian market.
In fact, OzJet has been around for a while, operating some charter flights and starting up some small-time routes like Perth to Derby in Western Australia. But the big step starts right now, with cheap flights from Sydney and Brisbane to Palmerston North on the north island of New Zealand. One-way flights are selling for A$199 (US$185) including all international taxes.
It seems that OzJet will expand to other Australasian routes, and they're not shy of doing a bit of marketing--skywriting included. We just hope the actual planes used to carry passengers are not involved in writing "OzJet" in the sky.
Of late, our only coverage of the city of Wellington, New Zealand has been our fears about its dangerous airport. That's despite the fact that Wellington is actually the capital city of the country.
But like Canberra in Australia or Brasilia in Brazil, it's one of those capital cities that nobody really knows about. Until now. Statistics from New Zealand's Regional Visitor Monitor are suggesting that Wellington is increasing its popularity as a destination--though they might be going too far by suggesting it's becoming a "must see" city).
Taking a look at the stats, though, we do feel tempted to drop in. In the past year, Wellington's reputation as a place to socialize and have fun has increased from 6 percent to 42 percent--whatever these percentages mean, the jump is definitely high. Visitors say there is good food and wine to be had in Wellington and that it has an appealing cityscape. Sure, you might still have to land at its risky airport, but perhaps that's the adventure travel part of your visit.
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by amandak
