Lake Pukaki, South Island, New Zealand
I have been lucky enough to recently return from a three week holiday in New Zealand. Having first visited as a backpacker in 2003 I was overwhelmed by the unspoilt beauty and varied landscapes of this amazing country and vowed to return.
Once again I was not disappointed, this time hiring a Maui motorhome, intent on trying some more of the adventure sports before tipping over into the wrong side of my thirties.
Tiger and her cub
The proposed expansion of India’s National Highway has sparked outrage amongst conservationists, concerned the new highway will destroy the Indian tiger corridor.
Work to expand the highway in the central state of Maharashtra had already begun, but was halted by the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) until the appropriate mitigation processes are in place.
Air New Zealand reveals its new all black aircraft
To celebrate their love of rugby and long-time sponsorship of the ‘All Blacks’ rugby team, Air New Zealand have produced the world’s largest commercial aircraft to be painted completely black.
The Boeing 777-300ER, which also incorporates the ‘All Blacks’ silver fern insignia, was revealed on the 16th December and was led out of its hanger by New Zealand World Champion rugby players, Kieran Read and Andy Ellis.
The paintwork took just over a week to complete (two days longer than it normally takes to paint a 777), with 14 painters working in shifts 24 hours a day, and 700 litres of chrome free paint were used.
View a time lapse video of the aircraft being painted on YouTube.
Remember to watch the skies in 2012, when this incredible looking plane will be flying into Heathrow, London.
To book a tailor-made trip to New Zealand, call one of our New Zealand specialists on 01993 838 820 or contact us online.
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford recently opened the doors to its new galleries of Ancient Egypt and Nubia. Its old Egyptian galleries have been redesigned and extended with state of the art facilities. This means that more than double the number of mummies and coffins are now on display, along with many of its other artifacts that have been in storage for decades.
The galleries have been designed to take visitors on a chronological tour covering more than 5000 years of human life on the Nile valley, from prehistory to the 7th century AD.
As well as the mummies and coffins on display, you will also be able to see the museums other iconic objects, such as the wall painting depicting Akhenaten and Nefertiti’s daughters, the Shrine of Taharqa from the temple at Kawa; and the enormous limestone statues of the fertility god Min which date to 3300 BC.
Visit the Ashmolean Museum website to find out more about its new galleries and when to visit.
To book a tailor-made trip to Egypt, call one of our Egypt specialists on 01993 838 410 or contact us online.
The path of totality (the bit in shadow) is 36 km wide as it passes over Uganda and Kenya
On November 3rd, 2013, a total solar eclipse will cross the northern part of both Uganda and Kenya. I’ve produced a map below showing its path as it travels across sub-Saharan Africa.
Why not combine a safari trip to one of these countries (or both) with a once in a lifetime chance to see one of nature’s most awe-inspiring sights?
Even though it’s nearly two years away still, accommodation in both countries near the eclipse path is likely to be in short supply so booking early is probably advisable to avoid disappointment.
Contact one of our Uganda or Kenya specialists on 01993 838 500 or contact us online to book your tailor-made safari and eclipse trip.
The starting point for the new trekking route in New Zealand, Cape Reinga
If you’re looking for inspiration to pull on your hiking boots and head out into the wide open spaces, this may be of interest to you. This month, New Zealand will be opening a new trail, Te Araroa – meaning ‘long pathway’ in the Maori language, which will run the full length of the country.
With the help of hundreds of volunteers, linking up existing routes and building new ones the new trail has taken over a decade to complete, and winds its way through New Zealand’s incredibly diverse landscape of mountains, volcanoes, lakes, valleys, and cities.
Running 3,000km from Cape Reinga in the north, to Bluff in the south, it will be one of the longest walking trails in the world. There are 300 stages along the route to choose from, varying in length from several days to a few hours. The full trek is estimated to take around four months to complete.
Visit the Te Araroa website to find out more about this new walking route in New Zealand.
To book a tailor-made trip to New Zealand, call one of our New Zealand specialists on 01993 838 820 or contact us online.
The instantly recognisable great white shark
Shark fin soup is a delicacy in many parts of Asia but it has also become highly controversial as it’s thought to be the major cause in the dramatic decline in global shark populations. Indeed, estimates for the number of sharks culled annually for the trade, range from a staggering 35-70 million, despite the fact that 30% of shark species are threatened with extinction.
Now, however, the Peninsula Hotels Group (we use their hotels in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Bejing and Bangkok) will become the first major chain to stop serving it as of January 2012.
It’s a major breakthrough for campaigners who see the practice as cruel, unnecessary and unsustainable.
The ubiquitous smartphone: fast becoming the ideal companion when abroad
Today, there are literally thousands of travel apps (or applications) on the market for smartphones. I’ve picked my top 10, some of which are free to download.
Have a look and see if you agree?
Pandas head to Edinburgh Zoo from China
With all the bad news that appears in the press normally, it’s nice to come across a positive, heartwarming story once in a while, and this is exactly what I found when having a look around the BBC news site yesterday.
Two pandas, named Sunshine and Sweetie, are on their way to Edinburgh Zoo from their home in China, in the hope that they will breed. Panda reproduction is notoriously difficult as females are only fertile for one day a year and, as Wei Ming explains in the video, there also needs to be a mutual attraction!
It is costing Edinburgh Zoo a whopping £700,000 a year for each bear, plus another £70,000 to feed their bamboo habit. They will be staying in Scotland’s capital for 10 years and the zoo hopes they will prove so popular that their visitor numbers double.
Visit the BBC website to watch this video and find out more about China’s panda conservation effort.
Spirit bear in British Columbia, Canada
The Raincoast Conservation Foundation is a charity that we as a company support and a recent update from them shows why their work really is so important to the wildlife of Canada.
In 2005 the charity purchased an area of hunting territory three times the size of Yellowstone National Park in Canada’s British Columbia region, along with a 24,700 square kilometres hunting licence. This meant they had exclusive commercial hunting rights over the area and the purchase ended commercial trophy hunting over this huge region. In 2011, the charity purchased another 3,500 square kilometres of hunting territory and this time the area encompassed a vast amount of spirit bear habitat.
In securing these large areas of land, the Raincoast Conservation Foundation has played a major part in the conservation of wildlife in the area, including black bears, wolves and spirit bears. And while the depleting numbers of salmon available in the area is still a worry, the progress made to protect bear habitat and reduce trophy hunting has dramatically increased the chance of future generations being able to enjoy BC’s wildlife for themselves.
If you would like to find out more about the charities we support, please visit our Responsible Travel holiday guide.
To discover more about the Raincoast Conservation Foundation and the work that they do, please visit the Raincoast Conservation Website.
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