10% off the price of my e-book version ... for 2 weeks

A celebrating 10% off the price of this book, now in e-book format

 .. use code PV56D http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/128126

Travel magazine celebrates its' first year

The launch of the 6th issue of Let’s Travel Magazine was celebrated in style with an invite only party held at the Suite Bar in Auckland. After only 12 months, the dedicated travel magazine has forged ahead in leaps and bounds to become one of the leading travel publications in New Zealand.

The latest edition has tightly focused on such diverse destinations as Dunk Island, a look at Samoan Spas, Club Med Bali, the Sunshine Coast, Tauranga, Tahiti, the Peruvian Andes, South Australia, Cape Town, rugged romantic getaways, the Classic New Zealand Wine Trail as well as the champagne haunts of Auckland.

The next 12 months are sure to be as action packed as the last 12 months when the Let’s Travel editorial team venture further afield in search of distinctive travel locations and unusual adventures.

“The unsurpassed success of Let’s Travel Magazine during this recession fuelled era is down to hard graft, a great design team, quality contributing writers and the vision of our editorial team,” says Gayle Dickson, Managing Editor. “It’s our aim to continue to strive for greater quality and greater journalistic excellence as the magazine expands over our next period of growth.

 

I hope you will see the kiwitravelwriter, Heather Hapeta in this subscrition-only magzine very soon.
 

see more and subscribe here at www.letstravelmag.com 

Rooms with views, bungee, diabetes and loosing weight.

 I wrote this from a room with a view. A  room in which various national and international ‘artists in residence’ have used to relax , sleep, or work.

I am supposed to be blogging about diabetes and weight .. but that all seems boring: nevertheless I can happily report  - after 7 weeks - my blood pressure is normal and I have lost over 5% of my body weight. Now back to writing a blog, or rather re-publishng a column I wrote when I was travel editor for a local newspaper.

As I sit and await the muse to visit (surely there must be some residual energy from those other writers) I gaze out the window at the view.

The Peacock Fountain, set in the Christchurch Botanic Gardens, was built in cast iron in 1911, and is the background to many photographs travelling to all points of the compass. As people pose, it sprays it’s water regularly from the dolphins, and is well decorated with herons, lily leaves, and other undefined foliage.

I think of other views, other places: some from on high, others just a glimpse through a door or window.

• A palm-roofed hut, just large enough to place a double-sized bed and still walk around it, produced a romantic view of white sands, palm trees, and blue skies. Idyllic - a genuine travel brochure scene.
  
• The view from my downtown Manhattan hostel window - taxis abandoned in the middle of the street and only the top of the yellow-cabs roof showing through the snow.
  
• The view from  a tower in Istanbul may have been amazing but I was too busy clinging to the building to appreciate it. It is hard to be a tourist/traveller with a  fear of heights. Nevertheless I do recall seeing the busy Bosphorus and the skyline of minarets through adrenaline-impaired-vision.

Once I nearly got over my fear enough to inwardly consider urban rap-jumping from the Novotel in Auckland. I am pleased to report I recovered my senses enough to keep those thoughts to myself and remained firmly on top of the hotel and did not walk down the side of the building- face forward - and now own a Tee shirt that says; I wouldn’t dream of urban rap jumping. The view of downtown Auckland and the harbour was great, however I was not really appreciating it right then.

With these confessions of fears, you will be surprised to know that I have done a bungee jump - right in the heart of Wellington. I was really fearful as they tied my ankles, the soft towel to prevent ropeburn did not reassure me. I must be crazy I think. Ropes tied and tested I am under starters orders.

“Move to the edge of the platform” he tells me and I shuffle forward, “A little more” I move almost imperceptibly more, my heart beating at an uncontrollable speed. The view is now clearly in front of me, the water is fast, cold looking and a long long way down. I still have time to back out of this but my pride won’t allow it. The countdown starts. Three. Two. One. Bungee! Over the edge I go, plummeting downwards, waterwards, my heart undecided if to climb out my throat  or smash through my ribs, I’m screaming. I bounce, up and down, down and up again swinging side-ways and slowly come to a gentle halt.

They untie my legs as I wonder did I wet my pants? I slowly walk away, my legs shaking. That may have only been virtual bungee at Te Papa but it was real enough for me!

• Another memorable view from the top was in Scotland. Inveraray, a village built by the head of the powerful Campbell Clan in 1745, has a bell-tower built, on top of a hill, as a memorial to the Campbell’s who have died in battle. I climbed, sometimes crawling on my knees, to the top for a fantastic view of the village below, the Clan Campbell castle (Inveraray Castle) and the beautiful Loch Fyne and the tiny village. It seems amazing that such a calm, peaceful setting was the training ground for some half a million troops prior to the D-Day landings in WW2.

My journal, written on top of that hill, notes my grief at my sons death some five years earlier, and how I had then thought I would die from the pain, yet now, on the date of his birth, I was enjoying the view from a hill in Scotland. Grief produces such paradoxes, out of pain, or perhaps because of it, growth and life and laughter happens. Just as Buddhists explain the lotus flower and how its’ beauty grows from mud.

 

Maybe the muse that was left in this room is a reflective one. One that looks out windows and wonders what’s it all about. I certainly don’t know, all I know is the more I know, the less I know, the less I need to know.

A happy new year - and peaceful travel - to all who read this .. and to those who dont!

Have  you read the credo to be a peaceful travel - I found it on a website dedicated to promoting peace through tourism (http://www.iipt.org/) and thought it well worth reproducing.

"Grateful for the opportunity to travel and experience the world and because peace begins with the individual, I affirm my personal responsibility and commitment to:

• Journey with an open mind and gentle heart

• Accept with grace and gratitude the diversity I encounter
• Revere and protect the natural environment which sustains life
• Appreciate all cultures I discover
• Respect and thank my hosts for their welcome
• Offer my hand in friendship to everyone I meet
• Support travel service that share these views and act upon them and,
• By my spirit, words and actions, encourage others to travel the world in peace.

How easy it is to say.

Sometimes diversity is hard to understand, so hard to appreciate - after all I see the world through my eyes, coloured as they are by heritage, education and experiences. People - whether a fellow traveller or someone whose country is being travelled to - see me with their eyes, coloured by the same things. it is no wonder we see and talk past each other at times.
But now maybe its even more important for those of us travelling to follow the creed and spread it as far as possible.

My old reaction would have been, rubbish, I am only one person what can I do?

Well that’s exactly what I have, one person who can do one thing to make the world a better place. Working on the principle of what I can’t do alone, we can together.

There is little I can do about airlines flying or not flying; there is little I can do about the costs of security; however there is a lot I can do as a ‘peaceful traveler’ and so will attempt to follow the above creed as I am ‘grateful for the opportunity to travel and experience the world.’

Pohutukawa: the New Zealand Christmas tree .. isn't it fabulous!

PS: and an update for those of you  following my weight loss (for health reasons /diabetes).
 I still lost some weight over the holidays and today I'm off for an hour-long walk in my local park - Hagley Park  - NZ's largest city park right here int he centre of my city, Christchurch, and right on my doorstep.

Is Thailand safe?

Although I have been blogging about my trip to Thailand last week - I suspect some of you may still be wondering: “Is Thailand safe?“

Now I have to admit when the political protesters blocked the airport I found it hard to be sympathetic for travelers who were bleating about being ’stuck’ in Thailand. That may have been unfair of me, as, as a passionate nomad, as a traveller who makes her own arrangements as to how, where and when I’ll travel, and where I’ll stay, my thoughts were ‘Thailand is the easiest of countries to leave’

So what were my conclusions? READ more here

0ff to thailand

My Bangkok plans includes exploring three very different and interesting places during a walk about in the city’s bustling flower market, a china town, a serene Buddhist temple.   95% of Thailand's population in Buddhist, there are around 400 wats (wat means temple) in Bangkok. My tour takes me to one of the most impressive: The Reclining Buddha temple “Wat Pho”. This is also home to the original and famous massage school

I will also travel by boat through the backwater canals of old Bangkok.

Nineteenth-century Bangkok was laced with waterways, giving the capital the designation “Venice of the East”. Over the past three decades many of the canals have disappeared and made way for motorways. Surviving canals and the mighty Chao Phraya, Bangkok’s River of Kings, provide a fascinating insight into the traditional waterborne Thai way-of-life that has remained essentially unchanged over the centuries.

The Royal Grand Palace is one of Bangkok’s most visited attractions and a wonder of the modern world. The royal palace, covering one square mile, was built in 1782 by King Rama I and remained a royal residence of the Chakri Kings up until the present monarch, who moved his home to the Dusit neighborhood.

Another highlight is Wat Phra Kaew (the Temple of the Emerald Buddha) which houses Thailand’s most revered Buddha image carved from a single piece of jade, believed to be the protector of the kingdom. The area is always crowded with worshippers as well as visitors trying to catch a glimpse of Thailand’s most sacred image of the Buddha.

I also look forward to visiting and maybe even dinning at the top of Bangkok's second tallest building - the landmark State Tower with its highly visible golden dome.

Book mark my blog so you can come back and see what I experienced and so help you plan your own trip to this land of smiles.

heather reccomends you read . . .

Check out Lonely Planet for all this infomation about "only in 2009" events 

Total Solar Eclipse, Varanasi, India. It may be cloudy, it will certainly be chaotic, but the chance to witness a 4-minute totality in one of the most ancient sun-worshipping sites in the world is just too much to resist. Occurs 22 July 2009.

Magnificence of the Tsars exhibition, Victoria and Albert Museum, London. No-one could lay on the sumptuous like a Russian tsar. Marvel at the pomp of their ceremonial clobber. Until 29 March 2009.

Motown's 50th anniversary, Detroit, USA. Detroit has a year's worth of celebrations planned (exhibitions with celebrity docents, special releases) to honour the legendary soul label. Detroit's lively music scene is sure to have an extra jolt in its amps.



'Hitsville USA' is the nickname given to Motown Records' first headquarters, now the Motown Historical Museum

Want to see all these events? Grab a round-the-world flight special.

Want to know the best of the rest? Get Best in Travel 2009 for a collection of travel experiences for the year ahead.