New Zealand Travel Blog

The NASA Discovery crew spent the equivalent of 365 days in space on a range of missions including launching satellites, working on the Hubble Telescope and carrying materials to the international space station in orbit 400km above Earth. The space station travels at 28,000km/h orbiting the planet six times a day - so one can only assume they were quite capable of handling the 100 metre Abseil (rappel) into Waitomo’s Lost World Cave. 

Australian English is also referred to as "Strine". The word derives from saying the word "Australian" through clenched teeth - a local accent that some scholars claim arose from the need to try and keep ones mouth closed when speaking, in order to keep the flies out…….  

True Aussie “Strine” can be quite difficult to understand, especially if you are in rural or outback Australia. To confuse things further, some Australians join several words together as one - like 'waddayareckon' (what do you reckon?) or owyagoin (how are you going?) and so on.

Nelsons Blue Lake at the top of New Zealand's South Island has some of the clearest water in the world, a study has found. The water is considered almost as "optically clear" as distilled water. Niwa aquatic optics specialist Rob Davies-Colley said it was highly significant that the clarity of the water in the lake was close to pure water.

Australia is a very welcoming country to travel to and appeals to a broad range of visitors from families with children to gap year students, and with wide open spaces, beautiful beaches, glorious sunshine, low crime statistics, and a vast and diverse landscape, it is one of the safest countries in the world to visit. But there are some catches, this article will help you be 'Safe and Aware while enjoying your holiday in Australia' Topics Covered: Driving, Snakes, Spiders, Crocodiles, Swimming, Sharks, Mosquitoes and Stingers. 

Bret McKenzie, half of New Zealand’s fourth-most-popular folk duo Flight of the Conchords, has won an Oscar for the song Man or Muppet. Bret McKenzie has carved his name alongside Sir Peter Jackson and Sir Richard Taylor as a Kiwi Oscar-winner. The Flight Of The Conchords star won best original song for Man or Muppet, from The Muppets film, at the star-studded ceremony this afternoon. He beat out the only other nominated tune, Real in Rio, from animated film Rio.

McKenzie started his acceptance speech by recalling his New Zealand upbringing.

Smarter than the Average Monkey

The New Zealand Kea, the world's only alpine parrot is known as the 'Clown of the Alps' to South Islanders; and has recently been heralded as the world’s smartest bird (its intelligence rivals a monkey’s) says the Institute of Cognitive Biology in Vienna.

"We wants it, we neeeds it. Must have the precious. They stole it from us. Sneaky little hobbitses. Wicked, tricksy, false!"

In a hole in the ground there lived the hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort. Welcome to 100% Middle Earth!

One good thing about heading our way for the festive season. We never have a white Christmas and the majority of our New Years Eve Parties are on a beach!