October 3 - the third day of Feature Down Under.

Today we're featuring Food and Cooking, with a little extra zing. Zest Food Tours looks like fun. Combine walking AND food! Right up my alley.  You can experience gourmet walking tours in Wellington and Auckland sightseeing with great food.  The local Zest Guide shares insights into the food, culture and sights of each region. Let them take you to taste the best food and meet the passionate producers behind them, at local favourites, in small exclusive groups.

The Curious Kiwi offers a comprehensive list of cooking schools, food and wine/beer festivals and tours. 6th December is the  Christchurch wine Festival which looks fun.

Or maybe you'd like to try some Australian luxury?   

Pretty Beach House on the Bouddi Penninsula in NSW really appeals! It's just one of the Luxury Lodges of Australia

and looks amazing. Pretty Beach House reopens January 2015 after a fire. The Lodge offers one of Stefano Manfredi’s expert chefs always on hand  so that guests can learn the secrets of the Manfredi kitchen using locally harvested seasonal produce. Hands-on private cooking classes can be arranged with appropriate notice at an additional cost. 

Day Two of Feature Down Under

Today we are featuring Train Journeys in New Zealand. Mainline Steam have a wonderful winter fairyland trip through the mountains from Christchurch to the West Coast, staying overnight in Greymouth.  Or choose the Coastal Pacific. Experiential Traveller has several tour groups for you to peruse. Try an armchair journey or book the real thing!

This month I'm featuring Holidays Down Under - a new one every day. Today, 1st October, I chose New Zealand Garden tours - maybe because I love gardens!  There's a wealth of great garden tours you can book -New Zealand Garden Route looks super, or try the main NZ Tourism site  NZ Tourism. Both are good.


Here's some photos from Wellington's Botanical Gardens

Walking Wonderful New Zealand

Today was a great walking day. My group headed out for a long beach walk on the West Coast of New Zealand's lower North Island. Just beautiful. Big roiling sea, fat, full, blowsy waves, birds shouting at each other to be heard over the wind. Which was a stiff, cold southerly straight off the Antarctic. And the sand was soft - so all up an excellent work out. Of course, our mouths worked out just as efficiently too! We did our usual follow up with a great hot coffee at a nearby garden centre and restaurant. The stump photo below has been wedged into the sand at Peka Peka beach for 15 years!  In October I'll write about several New Zealand 4 days catered hikes - so today is just to give you a taste. If you are in the northern hemisphere winding into autumn with the promise of a cold winter, think about an island holiday. Whether it's North, South,  or Stewart Island, our summer is calling and there's a lot to explore.

Calling all keen fishers! The New Zealand flyfishing season commences on 1st October. It's a big industry and also an export earner for us. For information and links: Experiential Traveller Travel News. The fish is a 2014 catch, the lower photo Lake Waikaremoana in the central North Island.

Poles... to walk with, not the North or South or natives of Poland

We walk a lot. And as we get older, good poles have become very important. Recently we found some super ones - from Norway. They are light and durable. 16 different lengths are available to suit every height. At just under UD$70, they represent good value. A free Nordic Walking DVD is included with your purchase. Get them on our website.

Something you can do when it's cold and miserable outside

There was a power cut yesterday. Right when the wind was howling and blowing stone-sized lumps of hail at the windows. The temperature outside dropped four degrees in two minutes(from 6 degrees Celcius to 2 degrees), the inside temperature took a little longer, but had a greater drop in the next four hours. I put on seven layers of clothes and shawls. I texted “he who would like to be obeyed” and told him about the power cut. He suggested I get in bed with a hottie. Unfortunately, due to the storm, no suitable young men were available.  I hankered after one of the chaps on the 2014 Firemen’s Calendar but they were all out on duty rosters. So sad.

I filled a hot water bottle instead, got myself a good book to read then got sidetracked. What else could I spend my time on? Practice armchair travel and take myself somewhere I haven’t been before.

I thought about a late holiday in a warm spot. I’ve been to Australia and the Pacific Islands, the far east isn’t so safe right now, the US is a disaster zone …actually LA airport is SO awful that the thought of actually having to arrive there puts me in a cold sweat. I’ve spent three hours in a holding pen in the transit zone in a corridor at 2am with no water or food and I don’t intend to do that again.

And from New Zealand it’s such a long haul, planes have to stop in LA or San Francisco or Vancouver – they’d run out of fuel if they tried to keep going. So where to go? A relaxing restful break, not my usual charge around trying to fit everything in and write and photograph it all at the same time.

I opened an actual Atlas at the whole world page, not a virtual online job, closed my eyes, and poked my finger at a spot.

Easter Island.

I began to investigate. For just under $NZ2,400 ( approx. $US2,000) round trip I can jump on an 11 and a half hour flight to Santiago, Chile out of Auckland NZ. There’s a flight each day.  And then I can catch another flight from Santiago to Mataveri Airport, Easter Island. Going back home to NZ, I do it in reverse order. Or, I could return home via Tahiti…Now, there’s a thought.

Facts about Easter Island:

“The daily and annual thermal oscillation is scarce, and precipitations are distributed homogenously during the whole year.” In English – it rains pretty much evenly all year, so no rainy season followed by a dry one. The climate is temperate, and the annual average temperature is 26.8 °C. It reaches a maximum of 29.6 °C in January, and a minimum of 19.6 °C in August.

LAN Chile airlines is the only airline that offers flights to Rapa Nui. Depending on the season, there are between four and seven flights a week from/to Santiago, and two flights a week from/to Papete (Tahiti). There are also two weekly flights available from/to Lima (Peru). Roundtrip tickets in standard economy class have prices that go from USD$500 to USD$900. 

Chilean Pesos are the local currency.

Three inactive volcanoes, stone statues (900 of them, some nearly 10metres tall) called Moais, beaches, caves and archaeology as well as churches and markets provide heaps of places to visit. I’m a keen walker, and there are several treks to choose from, for three to six days – but I think I only want short day treks on this trip. Scuba Diving, surfing, cycling, and horseback riding are all available.

Hanga Roa is where most of the hotels are (there are 35 to choose from). Prices vary between hotels - from US$95 per night to US$2,385 (yes, you read right) per night. To take advantage of the Explora Rapa Nui total luxury 5 star hotel you have to travel a bit, as it’s 8km out of town. You can pick up a rental car. Tripadvisor ranks  Hotel Hare Noi number one in Easter Island but it’s not available in September/October for the nights I selected, so I’ll choose another. The second ranked hotel is Taura’a’s, and the reviews are very good. It appears to be more of a B&B though, and I’m after a little more luxury this trip, so I’ll keep looking.  Hotel Hangaroa Eco Village and Spa  looks more my style. It’s  about US$1000  per night, and ranked 4^th by Tripadvisor. I’ve decided for this trip I will stay 7 nights. Well, Hangaroa Eco Village and Spa was available for some of the nights I selected in September, but I tried to see if  a seven night booking was available in November, December 2014 or January or February next year – and I was totally out of luck. Seems like luxury accommodation as well as B&B style in Easter Island is highly sought after.

This virtual trip filled in four hours till the power came back on. Thank to my smart phone that still works when the power doesn’t,  I was able to consult with Dr Goggle and completely plan my escape.  I think I’ll definitely put this on my places I’d like to visit list. Maybe next April I could get a booking!