In my recent trip to the picturesque country that is New Zealand and its beautiful North Island I managed to take a tour to see the Hobbiton movie set. Needless to say, with the upcoming Hobbit film about to start filming there soon, we all had to sign confidentiality agreements not to post pictures online (fair enough).

The tour is certainly something that I would recommend to anyone visiting the area close to Matamata, especially if you are an avid LOTR fan. There are now 32 hobbit holes so you can check out all the newly built homes which will soon be inhabited by Bilbo and his fellow hobbits.

However, it is expected that the tour will only be available for a few more weeks until the film crew arrive so i’d get a hurry on if you want to see the set in all its glory.

Last night I finally got round to booking my trip to New Zealand, but it wasn’t without its difficulties. There is quite a lot of choice these days when it comes to operators flying out of Manchester (most via London) to Auckland, so it took a while to get the best deal.

While searching for flights I did the usual search on flight comparison sites and found a couple of bargains that seemed too good to be true. Well, in the end I came to the conclusion that they were. After a quick Google search on the travel operators, many people said the same kind of thing: do not use this travel agent!

So, after discounting some of the best bargains on these sites, I began to look for quality of service and the flights that closely met the time I wanted to fly out there. After much deliberation it came between Singapore Airlines (who seem to be the carrier of choice for many) and Emirates (cheaper than most). In the end, I plumped for the former as I decided to compromise on price and go for comfort instead.

This blog title post may seem a little bizarre at first glance, but if you consider that most of the scenery shot during the filming of Peter Jackson’s epic Lord of the Rings trilogy was taken predominantly on the South Island of New Zealand it seems a little more reasonable.

The South Island is the bigger of the two main islands that make up New Zealand, and yet it is not as densely populated. This allows for miles and miles of the most breathtaking scenery on earth. Due to the fact the country is influenced by a temperate climate, this was the location of choice for the setting of Middle Earth.

You can now travel this beautiful island by hiring an affordable campervan and move around the island at your own pace.

I was amazed to find how cheap the flights to Australia and New Zealand are at the moment. When I flew from London to Auckland last October it cost around £900, now there are flights starting from £400 including taxes. There are so many deals out there, including this extraordinary offer from STA Travel;

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Seeing as my brother and his wife are currently living in New Zealand, I do look out for news relating to what’s going on over there. I was surprised to find out that the UK is not too hard done by when it comes to workers and holiday allowances.

Apparently, New Zealanders are among the western world’s most holiday-deprived workers, according to the annual global Expedia Vacation Deprivation survey.

The survey, which was conducted in 11 countries, found that forty-five percent of New Zealanders leave some of their annual holidays untaken, second only to Japan.

The survey found that New Zealanders received an average of 21 annual leave days from their employer in the past year, but took only 18 days. Workers in Australia and Canada were given 19 days, while Japanese workers were given 15 days and workers in the US only 13 days.

Expedia, the company behind the survey, said the global financial crisis was a major cause of workers taking fewer annual leave days, with 35 percent of New Zealand workers changing their holiday plans due to economic worries.

The last thing I expected to do when visiting Auckland in November last year was to attend a sci-fi exhibition. I was staying in the city for a few days meeting a friend from the UK before I travelled to visit my brother who is living in Tauranga.

As I had a few days to kill I did the usual Auckland sights – a brief visit to Kelly Tarlton’s Antarctic Encounter where I was under awed by the aquatic spectacular; a trip up the tallest free-standing structure in the Southern Hemisphere known as the Sky Tower; a surprisingly enjoyable visit to the Auckland Museum which took up half a day. Of course, I also briefly sampled the cuisine and the nightlife; having a good time, although I will never understand the fascination with rugby, transmitted onto large screens in every bar.

On my penultimate day in Auckland, we had seen the massive queues stretched for miles around the Aotea Centre and were curious to see what was going on. Oh, a sci-fi exhibition… The geeks in us were curious to find out what was going on, so on my last day we decided to see for ourselves what all the fuss was about.

‘Armageddon’ is a commercial science fiction and comics convention; fortunately nothing to do with the terrible America saves the world (yet again) movie of the same name. In recent years it has also showcased computer and video gaming, animation, and consumer electronics. There were ‘celebrity guests’ from popular TV shows and computer games. I must say that describing these guests as celebrities was pushing the boundaries somewhat, as the lesser-known Ghostbuster Winston, real name Ernie Hudson, was one of the few ‘stars’ I actually recognised. Maybe I’m not as much as a geek after all.

Armageddon also hosts a variety of stalls run by stores and companies from all over NZ and Australia, with DVD, gaming, trading card, comic, anime, and sport memorabilia sales. I picked up a few cheap DVDs, modelled a lucha libre wrestling mask and was proud of my pictures with Darth Maul, a stormtrooper, a man with a sword and a selection of the scantily clad models to be found on our way round the exhibition. I even managed to offend a pretty looking girl who starred in an obscure New Zealand show by declaring that “I had never even heard of it.” I have always been smooth when talking with beautiful women. Overall, a strange but entertaining experience that brought out the geek in me.

Tourism New Zealand has recently announced that it aims to launch a massive advertising campaign targeting UK holiday makers.  Including eight television commercial variations of 40 seconds duration and some e-marketing also the new advertising campaign is set to hit Britain on 7th September this year.

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If you’re looking for a luxury holiday one of the most popular destinations for British holiday makers at the moment is New Zealand.  However how many of you intrepid travelers would lured to New Zealand not for the breathtaking scenery but for the chance to brush fins with sharks? 

Well, this is exactly the type of holiday that two shark lover New Zealanders are offering holiday makers with that adventurous streak.  This newly launched venture will give visitors to New Zealand the chance to cage-dive with non other than great white sharks!

Thrill seeking tourists will be plunged into the Foveaux Strait waters locked inside a shark cage. 
Peter Dryden, who co-owns the Great White Southern Dive Company, claims that the cage is virtually impossible to damage and in his initial cage dive he was lucky enough to see five of these formidable sharks.  

The Otango Daily Times reports that Peter said:

“It’s pretty awesome. It’s something you can’t describe. They’re amazing.”

He goes on to reassure us that there is no need to be fearful of attacks:

“I think it’s because they are not hungry. There’s plenty of food for them to eat around Stewart Island.  Cages dropped in South Africa and South Australia have had their air hoses chomped through by the sharks. But our cage is indestructible because it sits just below the surface by the boat.”

On average the cage diving costs $500 or £190 per person for a day.