New Zealand, a unique place in the world

New Zealand, a very unique island country in the world

New Zealand is a very unique country comprising 2 large main Islands and several other small islands. It was for a long time unpopulated by human was about probably the last country to be populate sometime between around AD 800 and 1300. It boast of many unique flora and fauna seen nowhere else in the world because of its isolation. Before the arrival of humans, New Zealand only have animals that can swim or fly such as seals, sea lions, whales and bats. There were only insects and birds, some flightless ones like the Kiwi, the Moa and the Kakapo, and there were no predators to hunt them down. The Polynesians who first landed on the islands brought with them the Polynesian Rat (Kiore) and domesticated dogs. Europeans that arrived later brought cattle, sheeps, pigs, etc. Many of the imported animals drove the indigenous species to extinction, but there are still many unique to New Zealand you can see nowhere else in the world. And I am sure travelers to New Zealand will be glad to know that there are no man eating animals or snakes there.

You will get to see active volcanoes, ancient native forests, prehistoric glaciers and isolated island sanctuaries that will give you a unique experience. New Zealand is also bless with many world heritage sites (sites that have been recognised by UNESCO as having outstanding natural or cultural value. These include Tongariro National Park, Te Wahipounamu and the Subantarctic Islands.

Tonggariro National Park by Gemma Longman

Dent Island, one of New Zealand Sub-Antarctic islands by Twiddleblat

Te Wahipounamu UNESCO world heritage site by Manuel

New Zealand is really a unique place in the world and worthwhile visiting. For accommodation, the environmentally way is to book online using the environmentally friendly Internet and one which I would have used when I was traveling around Europe in the 70s had it been available. Would have saved me a lot of headache, a lot of precious time, and I believe probably a lot of money too.

New Zealand hotels

Now there are online accommodation booking websites like New Zealand Hotels.

Auckland and Auckland hotels

Auckland is located in the North Island of New Zealand and is the largest city and most populous of the New Zealand. It also has the distinction of having the largest Polynesian population of the world. Auckland is blessed with a warm-temperate climate. In summer, it is warm and humid summers while in winter it is mild and damp. For booking accommodation online, try Auckland Hotels.

Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand

Wellington is the capital city of the New Zealand located at the southern tip of the North Island. You will find an active art center and nightlife in Wellington and café going is a way of life. The Te Papa Tongarewa (the Museum of New Zealand) is located in Wellington. For culture, you have the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and the Royal New Zealand Ballet. The International Festival of the Arts is held on a biennial basis in Wellington.

For booking accommodation online, try Wellington Hotels

Christchurch

The regional capital of Canterbury is Christchurch and it is the largest city in the South Island. The scenic Avon river flows through the center of the city. The Cathedral Square located in the center of Christchurch houses Christ Church, an Anglican cathedral. It is a popular tourist attraction, particularly the speakers' corner popularized by Ian Brackenbury Channell, the Wizard of New Zealand.

Other attractions include Cashel Street, Christchurch's urban mall which is closed to traffic and open to pedestrian only. At one end of the mall is the Bridge Of Remembrance and at the other end is Hack Circle, an amphitheatre.

You may also be interested in parks like the Botanical Gardens, Hagley Park, Mona Vale, Riccarton House and Bush. Other places of interest include the Canterbury Museum, Ferrymead Heritage Park, Orana Wildlife Park, Willowbank Wildlife Reserve, Air Force Museum, Southern Encounter Aquarium and Kiwi House, International Antarctic Centre, Christchurch Art Gallery, the Christchurch Arts Centre, the Timeball Station in Lyttelton, the New Brighton pier, Heathcote Gondola, punting on the river Avon (see photo below)

Punting on a river by Zakgollop

For booking accommodation online, go to Christchurch Hotels.

eBay of vacation cruises: Cheap way to go on vacation curise

By now, I believe all visitor to this website would have heard of eBay where you can get bargains of all kind of things. I have purchased stuff like stepper motors, servo motors, etc. on eBay.com. Even put up for sale myself on my country's local eBay which charge no listing fees. Hard to sell because I was not prepared to deliver, which means I limit my market to a very small area. But did sell off a set of stuff I wanted to get rid of at huge discount to the price I bought for it. But because of the low reserve price, someone was prepared to travel great distance to take delivery of it. Just shows you can often get real bargains, for what I sold through the auction was more than a bargain. It was practically a giveaway. You can see what I sacrificed for a paltry sum at Sherline lathe with stepper motors and drivers.

Now introducing the eBay of vacation cruises - cheap vacation cruises!!!! Skyauction.com have auctions that begin with a $1 open and no reserve prices. With luck, you can get a vacation cruise bargain as good as that guy who got a whole set of useful stuff from me, and probably even better! And just like eBay, there often is a "Buy it now" option so you need not wait for the auction to end and book your bargain vacation cruise on the spot.

There are lots of choices like Carnival Cruise or Norwegian Cruise.

So wish you good luck, happy bidding and hope you get your dream vacation cruise at less than bargain price.

San Diego, lovely weather, lovely beaches

I traveled to San Diego, South California, United States of America in the 1980s. San Diego is a nice city to visit, with pleasant weather and many lovely beaches. I am not the only person who like to visit San Diego, as many others from the neighbouring states of Arizona and Nevada flock in droves to San Diego in summer to escape the searing heat. My sister-in-law lives in Yuma, Arizona, and she is one of those temporary migrants.

San Diego is also very near to the Mexican border with the border town, Tijuana, just 16 miles away. Many who visit San Diego as well as San Diego's own residents go to Tijuana to buy fake brand-name clothing and accessories, prescription drugs plus for cheap entertainment. There are many night clubs at Tijuana. I went there, but didn't buy anything nor did I go to any night clubs.

But the lovely beaches in San Diego is attractive enough and you don't really need to travel to Tijuana to enjoy yourself. One of the more popular beach is Mission Beach, but is not the only one, there are many. If you are only a visitor like me, and not a resident of San Diego, obviously you will need to rent accommodation. One of the places you can book online is San Diego beach rentals. They offer say they everything from basic vacation rentals to luxury vacation rentals and San Diego beach house. If you are more interested in Mission Beach, you can browse through their selection of Mission Beach rentals.

If you do go to San Diego and took some nice digital photographs, I hope you will upload them to Flickr or similar photo web host, and leave a comment with the URL of your album of lovely places in San Diego for all of us to enjoy. They say "sharing is caring" and I hope you care enough to share your experiences in San Diego with others who are not so fortunate. I would had digital cameras being in existence when I visited San Diego 20 years ago.

World Wide Vacation Rental Directory

Introducing a world wide vacation rental directory - vacation rental by owner. Would you happen to be a vacation rental property owner or manager in any part of the world? That directory is where you can list your property or properties for prospective renters. All you need to do is to create a Goin2Travel account, select a listing option, submit your property listing information and photos. Your listing will be on the web within minutes and you can start getting inquiries and accepting reservations.

With a Goin2Travel account, you will get a detailed web page where you can tell visitors about the good things about your vacation rental property, add in photos, include details of rates and provide your contact information. You can put in unlimited text, you will get your very own Goin2Travel web page with a link to your personal website and you can login to edit your page on a 24 hours day, 7 days a week basis.

Would you happen to own vacation rental property or properties in Myrtle Beach, a resort town along South Carolina's coast which gets more than ten million visitors each annual holiday season? Or if you are just a traveler looking for vacation rentals in Myrtle Beach? Whichever, do check out Myrtle Beach vacation rentals.

Or perhaps you have interest in something further down the United States of America's Eastern coast - Miami Beach? This World Wide Vacation Rental Directory have a site Miami Beach vacation rentals for that popular place too.

In fact from what I see, they have covered pretty much the whole globe, except for a few blank spot. But don't be surprised if you check later after this post is published, that those blank spots have been filled up too, for it don't look like the people running the directory is just sitting down idly but going all out to promote the site so all you vacation rental property or properties owners or managers will get your money worth when you list your vacation rental property or properties with them.

Advantages of online accommodation booking

Disadvantages of not booking accommodation ahead of arrival when traveling

I had traveled extensively around Europe in the 70's when there was no such thing as Internet. I had to hunt for accommodation only on arrival, which is not something pleasant. I had to waste time and energy going from hotel to hotel to find something to suit what I want and/or within my budget. Those time could have been spent doing sight seeing or other activities which were the reasons for me to travel there. Particularly, if you travel during the peak seasons, you may not be able to find the accommodation you need at all, in which case your other choice will be in the railway station or the airport. And if you happened to be traveling during autumn or winter when it is cold, it is going to be a very unpleasant experience.

Advantages of not booking accommodation ahead of arrival when traveling

Thanks largely to Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee, the World Wide Web arrived on the scene, and not only that, through his insistence and efforts, it remained largely free for the public to use. With that came along sites that help travelers book accommodation easily ahead of arrival, and not only that, do it conveniently from the comfort of their home and also possibly instantly. No waiting. You can also do comparison shopping easily before making your decision without having to, put it crudely, lift your butt off the comfort of your seat.

One of those online accommodation sites is Whistler accommodation, a vacation rental company based in Whistler, British Colombia, Canada, offering a wide variety of properties for rent all year round. They specializes in ski resorts, many of them ski-in, ski-out with wood-burning fireplaces and private hot tubs. According to their site, they can organise a fully-catered holiday which may include particular request such as the services of a masseuse in your chalet every evening or a cosy condo with a log fire a stone’s throw from the village. And all this with a simple email. What can be more convenient than that and how I wished Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee was born earlier. My travel around Europe in the 70s would have been much more pleasant then.

Depending on your preferences, you may go for Whistler condo rental which would be more suitable for those traveling as a big family or in a large group, and you want such facilities as a kitchen or kitchenette so you can cook your own meals and not have to spend more money eating out in expensive restaurants.

Holiday Whistler Accommodations seem to have a lot of choices for you to pick from such as this gem - Cedar Ridge 17 located in Benchlands, Alberta. You can see a photo of its interior below:



According to its descriptions, Cedar Ridge 17 is a ski-in, ski-out townhome on the lower slopes of Blackcomb Mountain within a 30-second or less walk to the slopes. It says it has a spacious hallway, powder room, storage area, sunken living room, spacious dining plus entertainment area with cedar-lined vaulted ceiling with wood-burning fireplace, a and spacious dining area. fully-equipped kitchen, a large deck with sunken private hot tub overlooking the valley plus 3 bedrooms; one with a queen-size bed plus twin beds and one with 2 bunk beds plus separate twin beds, all downstairs.

Upstairs is a very spacious master bedroom with ensuite bathroom and a private deck looking up the hill.

They claim to have 2 parking places for cars, one a private garage and another one on the private driveway. However, there will be no more parking visitors' cars.

Daytona and Myrtle Beach and the rest of the world

The United States of America is a huge country with an area of 3.7 million square miles (9.6 million km²) and over 300 million people with a very wide range of weather, geographical features, people, etc. There is a wide choice of places to visit for resident and well as non-US resident. It is not unusual for US residents of the north to travel south to escape the harsh cold winter.

Among the places they may go to for warmer weather is Daytona in Florida. One often associate the name Daytona with speed because of the world famous NASCAR track that hosts the annual Daytona 500 as well as other racing related events. There is also Daytona USA which is an interactive motor sports theme park with an antique car museum. There are also the Daytona Bike week normally held in February and Biketoberfest in October which attracts thousands of visitors from around the world.

Spring Break Daytona Beach has a long tradition that takes place on miles of sandy beaches with Spring Break activity, pool deck parties, hot Daytona Beach Clubs like the Ocean Deck, Razzles, and 600 North.

With all these, Daytona sound like a great place to visit. Unless you are a Daytona resident, you will of course need accommodation which you can easily chose and book online via Daytona vacation rentals.

Myrtle Beach in South Carolina is also a warm and popular destination for vacationers from around the States, Canada and abroad. The Grand Strand is a 60-mile crescent of beach with clean, wide beaches and a great variety of recreation, entertainment, dining and shopping. If Myrtle Beach sounds like a place you like to visit, you can chose and book your accommodation online via Myrtle vacation rentals.

If neither of these places interest you, there are still lots of places around the world you can go for your vacations and you will find a great variety of accommodations available from vacation rentals.

Take TGV trains rather than fly when in France

There are various ways of travelling - road, rail (trains), fly, etc. In France, the is an extensive network of TGV trains connecting major cities travelling at very high speed. Actually, TGV trains connect not only French cities, but also some cities in Belgium, Italy, Spain, Germany, Netherlands and United Kingdom via the Channel (tunnel under the English Channel connecting Folkestone, Kent in the United Kingdom to Coquelles near Calais in northern France. Let us compare travelling via air flights and travelling via high speed TGV trains.

Flying

Flying involve very expensive airplanes flying at high altitudes. Much precious and depleting fossil fuel need to be used to get the planes up to the high altitudes. There is the noise pollution on take off and landing which residents near airports have to put up with. The burning of fuel, a precious, increasingly expensive and depleting fossil fuel, releases greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming. The contrails (vapor trails or condensation trails and artificial cirrus clouds caused by the exhaust of aircraft engines) left at 30,000ft act to further magnify a plane's climate change impact. Further, the planes are spewing air pollutants such as nitrates, ash and sulfates at high altitudes, some of which deplete ozone in the atmosphere, a protective layer crucial for protecting life on Earth from the Sun's harmful rays. The Royal British Commission on Environmental Pollution estimated in 2002 that commercial airline emissions are a major contributor to global warming, and urged governments to draft policies to encourage train travel instead where feasible. It seems the Lonely Planet guide to Paris recommend taking the train too.

In addition to all the above, airports are usually located far away from the city centers which is the normal initial departure and destination points of air travellers. The travelling time plus the check-in time, time needed to go through custom and immigration procedure plus the security checks after 9/11 contribute to the total travelling time, and for short travel, it is not unusual for train travel to be faster and more convenient as train stations are located very close, if not within city centers.

TGV trains

TGV ("train à grande vitesse" translated from French to English "high-speed train") is France's high-speed rail service first developed by GEC-Alsthom (now Alstom) and SNCF, the French national rail operator. TGV train has expanded from connecting major cities in France to connecting cities in adjacent countries like Belgium, Italy, Spain, Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands. It also connects to the United Kingdom via the Chunnel (underground tunnel beneath the English Channel between France and United Kingdom). While it has been recorded to travel at 574.8 km/h (357 mph), in commercial use, it can travel at speed up to 320 km/h (200 mph). In addition to its high speed which can rival air travel, it also have the advantage of having the railway stations located near or even within city centers. Thus for short journeys, especially for travel within France, you can probably reach your final destination in shorter time compared with air travel.

Travelling with TGV trains are also safe according to Wikipedia. The TGV trains has not recorded a single fatality due to accident while running at high speed although there had been fatalities while travelling on lignes classiques (traditional lines, that is, collisions at low speed at railway crossings, etc.). Travelling in the more spacious TGV trains is probably more comfortable than in the cramped space in an airplane.

The most extensive network of TGV trains is in France, and in my opinion, it is a much better idea to use the TGV trains than fly when travelling within France. Travelling is one thing. The other thing you will need is accommodation. You can book that online at Hotels in France. Most visitors will be staying in Paris, the capital, and for that, book your accommodation at Hotels in Paris. They have a Lowest Rate Guarantee. If you can get a rate lower than the best available Internet rate on another web site for the same hotel/accommodation, on the same dates, just inform them within 24 hours of booking your room(s) with them, and they will honour that rate for the night(s) for which the lower rate was found and refund you the difference.

If you read Spanish, you can look for accommodation in Francia Hoteles