Traveloscopy travelblog: stories, tales and yarns from the world of travel

NEW YORK IS LIKE A MAGNET TO AUSTRALIAN TRAVELLERS

2009-07-07T11:51:00.003+10:00

Australians continue their love affair with New York City despite the economy. Aussie visitation to the Big Apple reached nearly 200,000 last year and continues to increase in the face of the slowing global tourism according to Manhattan's Beacon Hotel General Manager, Tom Travers

A 19 year veteran of the 260 room hotel hosts more than 2,000 from down under each year and its rising

Situated on the upper west side one of Manhattans most sought after areas the Beacon Hotel is affordable and the only property in the vicinity with kitchenettes in each room and full kitchen facilities in all the one bedroom suites. Adjoining the hotel on Broadway is the famous Beacon Theatre that like the hotel has just been completely renovated. The theatre has been pulling massive crowds to its shows since the "roaring 20's" and to mark the re-opening in April more top talent with Paul Simon followed by Leonard Cohen and some upcoming acts include the Dalai Lama, Kiss FM, Bob the Builder live, Elvis Costello and Tom Jones.

Just a well judged nine iron shot over Broadway from the Beacon and right into the middle of the ‘Fairway’. It's not a golf course but a sensational delicatessen with take out and eat in and stocked with every food line imaginable. Yes "Deli heaven" for sure!!!. (Also sells booze). Very traditional fare upstairs at the Deli restaurant try the Rueben's sandwich (hot corn beef stacked high) . Take note;- share next time ‘cause they are bigger than the Empire State Building. Trivia buffs need to know that the Fairway Deli sells more than 60 tons of Parmesan cheese annually. How are their arteries going now? The big plus about the area around the Beacon is that one is treated as a New Yorker, not a tourist...that is until you open your mouth!

Central Park continues to be one of the most tourist frequented place in NYC and a highlight is Strawberry Fields across from the Dakota building where Beatle John Lennon was shot in 1980. More than 40 million tourists visit NYC each year and high on their attraction list are the Broadway shows, the Rockerfellow Centre for great views from the top of the Rock, Statue of Liberty, high class shopping on Fifth and Madison Avenue and great bargains at the cheaper end at Ross's and First National next to the currently being re structured twin towers. Be sure to include Radio City Music Hall. This iconic retro building has been restored to its glory days and is a sight to behold. Our visiting group had the chance to go on stage which only happens when there is a lull in showtime. Most shows on Broadway at the moment, have been boilin' for a while, Billy Elliott, Guys and Dolls, Heda Gabbler, Lion King, Mamma Mia, Mary Poppins. We saw Chicago as it was on the half price list. Wanted to see Jersey Boys depicting Frankie Valley and the Four Seasons but that was full price. When in a Jewish neighbourhood act accordingly. Its 25 years since first meeting the big Apple and things have certainly changed for the better, people are much more amiable, talkative and helpful and you can walk or run in Central Park and not get mugged these days. Can't wait to return. As Ol blue eyes says in song "if you can make it there you make it anywhere its up to you New York New York.

With a marked recent increase in carriers and availability from Australia to NYC and such seductive airfares, the lowest in more than 22 years, the floodgates from Oz to NYC will remain open to the max.

Welcome to the Hotel Beacon, a haven of comfort amid the bustling excitement of New York City. Located on the historic Upper West Side, amid tree-lined streets and landmark buildings, the hotel is a beacon for relaxation. Friendly and accommodating, we offer handsomely decorated, oversized guestrooms and suites. With wonderful views of Central Park, the Hudson River and Midtown Manhattan, the Beacon is the perfect vantage point from which to venture anywhere in New York. And when your busy day is done, you'll have a perfect place to come home to.

GRIM START TO A SOUTH PACIFIC PARADISE

2009-07-06T12:10:00.002+10:00

david Ellis

IF it was any consolation to those French deportees foolhardy enough to misbehave so badly in the one-time penal colony of New Caledonia as to warrant execution, it was that they went to their deaths on one of the most famous guillotines in French history.

Because when it became obvious to the commandant of the prison just outside Noumea that a few of his confinees were more fractious than he had been led to believe, he sent word to Paris asking permission to implement capital punishment upon the worst offenders.

And Paris obliged by delving into its prison armoury and despatching by the next convict sailing ship, the guillotine that had been used in 1793 to execute both Louis XVI and his queen, Marie Antoinette during the French Revolution... just four years, incidentally, after the contraption was refined by the French doctor, Joseph Guillotin.

Many people believe that it was Dr Guillotin who invented the guillotine, but in fact it had been around in various guises since the 14th century, and in England from the 15th century was known as the "Scottish Maiden."

Dr Guillotin was both a medical doctor and lawmaker, and believing that the guillotine was the "most humane" method of execution, was able to convince the government in 1791 to introduce "humane mechanical execution" using the device.

A fellow named Antoine Louis was engaged to build the prototype of Dr Guillotin's refined contraption, and in turn hired German-born Tobias Schmidt to actually build it – believing that Schimdt was ideally suited to this as he was a renowned harpsichord maker.

And some 90-odd years on it must have been a very sobering six-month's journey for those on board that convict ship to New Caledonia as they pondered every day the guillotine lashed to the aft deck...

Just how many convicts fell victim to that guillotine is in somewhat of dispute: official records say a total 27 convicts were executed by guillotine, but just before his death one executioner claimed that he alone had beheaded 74 miscreants.

Whatever the true figure, it was a minuscule proportion of the 18,000 hardened criminals, petty thieves, minor other crooks and political deportees who were transported on thirty-three convoys between 1864 and 1897.

And in their typically meticulous way, the French didn't send just any old rabble on their earliest convoys to New Caledonia: the very first were made up of tradesmen convicts who could build their own stone and timber prison, and the next were those able to read and write and who could work in the prison's and other government offices.

Then came those with agricultural skills who could run farms to feed the growing penal settlement, and after them, anyone France simply wanted to be rid of.

And when sentenced to a future on the other side of the world (and hardly considered a South Pacific holiday playground in those days,) convicts did not only their "time" but had to remain in the colony for an equal number of years as "free men and women."

It was a system that worked very well for France, as most prisoners on their release quickly found work, married and had little reason to bother about returning home. And they quickly established a solid community of largely law-abiding settlers in the sun and freedom outside the prison walls.

The last convicts arrived in New Caledonia from France in 1897, and although the gaol was officially closed in 1914, one long-term deportee with papers marked by the court "Never To Be Released" was shipped to another of France's penal colonies in Guyana in Africa.

The guillotine was moved to a new prison and last used in the 1940s. It is now dislayed in a museum at Bourail 150km north of Noumea. The museum has an interesting collection of photos, documents, work tools, and household and personal items of one-time convicts and prison staff.

[The Hotel Le Lagon Noumea has a current special of stay 4-nights/pay 3-nights including full buffet breakfast on three mornings and a free half-hour massage per person; see travel agents for fly/stay packages available until December 20 if booked by July 31. The hotel has a heated pool, shallow kids pool, two spas and gym with sauna and fitness instructor.]

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PHOTO CAPTIONS:

[] THE guillotine used to deal out justice in New Caledonia up until the 1940s is on display at the Bourail Museum.

[] HISTORIC photo of a prisoner being led to his end on Noumea's guillotine

[] OLD wares at the Bourail Museum just north of Noumea

[] PICTURESQUE New Caledonia: little wonder few deportees went home to France after their release

BUBBLY WIDOW’S RIDDLE PUTS SPARKLE IN CHAMPAGNE

2009-06-28T10:39:00.001+10:00

david ellis

AT a time in the early 19th century when young married women were expected to stay home and look after the children, or if they were rich, stay home and pay someone else to look after the children, Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin turned such norms on their head.

The daughter of Count Nicholas Ponsardin, a wealthy and influential textile manufacturer through his friendship with Emperor Napoleon, Barbe-Nicole had inherited strong genes, and when she married winemaker Francois Clicquot immediately set out to prove she was never going to be your normal wife.

Sadly this came about somewhat quicker than she'd hoped: in 1805 her husband of only six years died. Barbe-Nicole shocked family, friends and her late-husband's business associates by announcing that rather than taking on a business manager, she herself was taking change of his wine-making business at Reims in the north of France.

Sacre bleu cried the other winemakers. How could a woman run a company? Particularly a physically demanding winery?

But the 27-year-old veuve (widow) Clicquot soon turned Reim's winemaking industry upside down – literally.

And the result is that two centuries later, we still toss down the drop she made famous by one of her innovations, Veuve Clicquot Champagne.

And while she borrowed from her rich father-in-law to help market her tipple, it was her invention of a novel technique called riddling after the primary fermentation of Champagne that put her on the world stage.

Until then, Champagnes had a cloudy appeared caused by dead yeast in the bottle.

To get rid of this, Barbe-Nicole came up with the idea of having holes cut in her kitchen table, and put her Champagne bottles upside down in these so that the dead yeast fell and settled in the neck against the cork. After several weeks the corks were taken out, the dead yeast removed and new corks put in.

To further improve the technique she and her cellar master, Antoine de Muller devised a rack that held the bottles at a 45-degree angle, and each day a cellar-hand gently shook and turned each bottle; when the cork was eventually removed the yeast sediment was discarded, the bottle topped up with sweetened wine and re-corked to encourage secondary fermentation – and, hey presto, Champagne was now ferociously bubbly and sparkling clear.

Her other move was to re-open trade in Champagne with Russia – which had stopped during the war with France. And as she got in before other makers, her label soon captured a huge slice of Russia's renewed interest in French bubbly.

By the time she died in 1866 at the age of 89, Barbe-Nicole had become known as La Grande Dame de la Champagne, a title that lives on with a prestige cuvée of the same name.

And today tourists come from around the world to visit her famous cellars in Reims.

For €13 (around $23) they get a 90-minute guided tour of the winery and some of the 26km on underground storage tunnels – and at the end, a tasting of the famous Champers.

Reims is just 45 minutes from Paris by super-fast trains that travel at 320km/hr; it's a fascinating city, with some 80 per cent of the city having been destroyed in World War I, but lovingly restored to its original design – with much of the funding actually coming from American billionaires such as John D Rockefeller.

One particular must-visit is the Cathedrale Notre-Dame de Reims, where the old Kings of France were crowned – with the celebrants toasting the future of their new monarchs with Champagne, of course.

There are 2300 religious statues in the cathedral, and if you don't suffer from vertigo, it's worth climbing the 249 steps to the narrow walkway around the roof for a spectacular view of the city.

Find time also to go to the so-called Salle de Reddition, an old schoolhouse where German generals surrendered to General Dwight D Eisenhower in May 1945 at the end of World War II. It's been preserved as it was on that day.

The French renamed the street on which it sits 'rue de Franklin D Roosevelt', after the American president.

If you're heading to France, ask your travel agent to include a visit to Reims, and the Veuve Clicquot cellars.

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PHOTO CAPTIONS:

[] CLEAR view on Champagne – the widow Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin with one of her granddaughters

[] FAMOUS Reims Cathedral – crowning point for France's kings of old

[] HISTORIC 1920s enticement to visit France's Champagne region

[] PICTURESQUE Reims: a 16th century chapter house gateway

CALIFORNIA FUN PARK KNOTT FOR FEINT-HEARTED

2009-06-22T19:20:00.001+10:00

david ellis

I FEEL I am still in recovery, having been hurled, whirled, blasted, inverted and reverted forwards, backwards, upside down and sideways at a near-100 white-knuckle k's an hour – and for good measure dropped, plunged, soaked and spun dried.

Then tossed more times in 3-minutes than a Caesar salad.

Even when my feet are planted firmly back on terra fIrma for a sedate ol' fashioned steam train ride I find myself bailed-up by a couple of baddies wanting to spoil my ride by wielding six-guns in my face, and when I choose a genu-ine wild west Butterfield Coach for a more sedate amble, I find its sides disconcertingly peppered with equally genu-ine bullet holes…

Welcome folks to Knott's Berry Farm, America's oldest theme park, 10 minutes from Disneyland in California's Orange County, and a must-do on that USA holiday whether you're six or 60, and whether you're looking for a hell-raisin' coaster rider, or just mosey-in' around for photo opportunities with Charlie Brown, Lucy, Snoopy and the Peanuts Gang.

Walter and Cordelia ('Ma') Knott were struggling to make a living on their berry farm in the 1930s Big Recession when Cordelia had the idea of frying up some of their farm chooks and serving them to visitors to help make ends meet.

Her first eight customers on a June day in 1934 ate their meals off the Knott's wedding-present china in the family dining room, and so good was Cordelia's home-recipe golden fried chicken, creamy potato mash and tasty gravy, that most came back, bringing family and friends with them.

Soon folks were queuing for Ma's chicken dinners, and to kill time while they waited for a table, Walter brought-in some abandoned ghost-town buildings they could wander through; he then found a rusting old 1880's Denver and Rio Grande steam train that no one wanted, did it up and offered visitors rides on this on a narrow gauge track he laid around the farm.

Then came that rattling old Butterfield Stage Coach: America's first theme park was born.

Today, Knott's Berry Farm serves 1.5-million of Ma Knott's original family-recipe chicken dinners a year, and nearly as many servings of cherry, rhubarb or boysenberry pie, buttermilk cookies, ice-creams and preserves.

And from Walter's still-standing ghost town buildings there are now over 160 rides, shows, attractions, and shops to while away a day or two…

We late-in-life thrill seekers head straight for GhostRider, a 1400-metre long wooden roller coaster that reaches speeds of 100k's. It includes a 35-metre high swooping drop, and 13 hills, banks and turns, and has been voted by coaster freaks as America's "best ride."

Then its to the hair-raising Supreme Scream in which we're hauled up a steel tower the height of a 30-storey building, with nothing but fresh air and a safety-belt holding us to our bench-seat – and not dropped, but blasted ground-wards… at over 100k's an hour in just 3 seconds, springing bungy-like half-way up the tower again. Twice.

Others in the Knott's arsenal of speed thrills are heart-stoppers Boomerang and Montezooma's Revenge, Bigfoot Rapids, and Perilous Plunge – the world's tallest, steepest and wettest water ride in which 24-passenger coasters hurtle down a 75-degree water-slide from 40-metres up – creatng a splash at the bottom the height of a 4-storey building.

We get ourselves spun-dried after this in a cage that spins riders 25m into the air... then head for Silver Bullet, a near-1000m long coaster on which we're propelled at 90kmh through six 360-degree inversions and dropped almost vertically 33-metres.

For the kids and the more sane-minded there's Camp Snoopy's Charlie Brown Speedway mini-racers, a Ferris wheel, Snoopy's Red Baron Airplanes, Rocky Road Trucking Company's mini 18-wheelers, a kid-sized roller coaster called Timberline Twister, a restored 1896 Carousel, the steam train (now the oldest ride in the park) and that stage coach.

And a sedate splash through the easy-going Timber Mountain Log Ride, a simple runaway ore train ride in the blacked-out Calico Gold Mine, and Lucy's Tugboat…

Go visit: you'll find it a quick and reliable heart check you should see if you can claim on your health fund.

(For USA holiday packages incorporating Knott's Berry Farm phone Canada & Alaska Specialist Holidays on 1300 79 49 59, or email sales@canada-alaska.com.au)

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PHOTO CAPTIONS:

[] IT'S wise to do Montezooma's Revenge before lunch

[] UPSIDE down view of the world at a hundred k's on the Silver Bullet

[] BOOMERANG – twists and turns to get back where you started from

[] MORE sedate: steam train ride is the oldest attraction at Knotts Berry Farm

[] ORIGINAL wild west building that kick-started America's first amusement park

STRUTH! The Tiddly (Wink)

2009-06-22T19:13:00.001+10:00

STRUTH !

IN his continuing search for the more weird, whacky and wondrous in the world of travel, DAVID ELLIS says there's certainly truth in advertising in the little English village of Ellerdine near Shewsbury in Shropshire: while the pub's official name is the Royal Oak, so many villagers know they'll collect their wobbly boots on a visit there, that they simply dub the place 'The Tiddly.'

After years of trying to promote the real name of the pub, the Royal Oak's publican decided some years back that if you can't beat 'em, join 'em, and put up a new sign (see pic) for his watering hole.

And OF COURSE The Tiddly's the best pub in Ellerdine – it's the ONLY pub in Ellerdine!

STRUTH! WHERE THE MUDDY HELL ARE YOU....

2009-06-15T11:01:00.001+10:00

STRUTH !

IN his continuing search for the more weird, whacky and wondrous in the world of travel, DAVID ELLIS says you wouldn't want to be a hotelier at Boryeong in Korea in July – that's when 40,000 revellers descend on this town on the country's Yellow Sea Coast to wallow like, well, pigs in mud.

Mud found on the flood plains around the town's Daecheon beach has long been famous for its cosmetic properties, and in 1998 local tourism officials decided to go beyond just promoting the stuff in jars and tubes for visitors to take home, launching their first slap-up Mud Festival that proved such a hoot it's been held every year since.

Between July 11 and 19 this year you can wallow in all the medicinal values of Boryeong mud with such events as mud facials, mud hair rinses, mud surfing, mud wrestling, mud sliding, a Mud King competition and a Human Pyramid (or should that be Pyramud?) contest, a mud cavalry battle, mud canoeing – and at night, wallow back in pools of mud to watch fireworks.

Then go back to your hotel and those nice crispy white sheets…

What would your Mudder say?

SPINE-TINGLING ‘I DO’ IN BLUE HAWAII

2009-06-15T11:00:00.001+10:00

david ellis

YOU wouldn't think there'd be too much interest in getting married at a hotel that's been boarded-up and derelict for seventeen years, but in Hawaii couples are lining up for just such an opportunity.

And it's all because of two people: Elvis Presley who was married at this now-decaying place in the 1961 hit-movie Blue Hawaii, and a passionate Hawaiian historian, entertainer and cultural enthusiast, Larry Rivera who has been associated with the hotel for an amazing 58 years.

The Coco Palms Resort was opened on the island of Kauai in the early 1950s. It started with a mere 24 rooms, but like Topsy, just growed and growed to eventually by the 1980s embracing close-on 400 rooms, suites and thatch bungalows.

Legendary hotelier Grace Guslander was the first to put the place on the map when she and husband Lyle took it over in the mid-1950s, introducing such novelties as having doormen welcome arriving guests with a blast on a huge conch shell, and picking bare-chested male staff with perfect physiques to run through the grounds at 7.30pm each night lighting scores of oil flares – a "Call to Feast" that let guests know that dinner was served.

And with a reputation for embellishing history and never allowing the facts to spoil a good story, Grace soon earned Coco Palms a more exalted position than it deserved in Hawaii's royal history. This included declaring a plantation of 2000 coconut palms to be the "royal grove" of Queen Deborah Kapule, Kauai's last reigning queen who once lived on the site – even though the grove was not planted until 1896, forty-three years after the Queen's death.

To give further importance to this "royal grove" Grace Guslander invited film stars, sporting personalities and royalty to plant new coconuts that would be named in their honour, the invitations being enthusiastically taken-up by, amongst others, Bing Crosby, the von Trapp Family Singers, Hawaii's famed Olympic swimmer Duke Kahanamoku, and the Prince and Princess of Japan.

During the Guslander's time running the resort, a young local, Larry Rivera got his first job there, working in the cocktail bar and dining room in 1951, but leaving for a while to serve with the Army during the Korean War.

On his return in 1954, the Guslander's gave him his job back and Larry worked there until Hawaii's most ferocious hurricane, Iniki swept across Kauai in 1992 with winds of 300kmh, including one gust of 365kmh (227 miles per hour;) the resort was trashed and despite numerous proposals has never re-opened.

Larry Rivera, however, has a special love of the place, and today as well as still being one of Kauai's most-popular entertainers with his singing, ukulele and guitar playing in various venues around Kauai and on radio and TV, this near-octogenarian organises weddings and renewals of vows ceremonies in the grounds of the old resort.

These include the couple being serenaded as they travel on a circa 2009 replica of the same double-canoe and on the same lagoon as that which Elvis Presley (Chad Gates) married sweetheart Maile Duval (played by Joan Blackman) in Blue Hawaii back in 1961.

And whether the simplest service or the most spectacular with the replica Presley canoe, Larry treats each with the same care and "feeling of aloha" as he would if it were for one of his own daughters or granddaughters… and while the buildings may be trashed, the maintained tropical gardens around the lagoon are still to those who marry there, "the last paradise,"

Simple ceremonies start from US$600 and range up to the spectacular "Blue Hawaii Wedding" that costs US$2500 plus tax and includes a non-denominational minister, the replica Blue Hawaii double outrigger canoe massed with tropical flowers, two canoe paddlers, a conch shell blower, Larry serenading as the canoe slides down the lagoon and during the service… all culminating with his spine-tingling Hawaiian Wedding Song.

The couple also receive an album of thirty-six 5X5 colour photos, two enlargements, a DVD, two orchid leis, a Haku plant headband for the bride, and a wedding certificate.

For more details of weddings and renewals of vows at Coco Palms, airfares to Hawaii, accommodation and sightseeing there, phone Canada & Alaska Specialist Holidays on 1300 79 49 59, or email sales@canada-alaska.com.au
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IMAGE CAPTIONS:

[] LARRY Rivera serenades a local couple as they make their way to their Renewal of Vows on the replica Elvis Presley Blue Hawaii outrigger canoe.

[] A COUPLE married in the grounds of the Coca Palms Resort enjoys Larry's spine-tingling Hawaiian Wedding Song.

[] ELVIS slept here during the making of Blue Hawaii, choosing the last bungalow on the left so he could come and go without being seen by other guests.

[] THE still boarded-up remains of the Resort trashed by Hurricane Iniki in 1992 – the lush tropical gardens along the lagoon are maintained for weddings and vow renewals organised by Larry Rivera.

Photos Dexter Olivas/David Ellis

Struth! Across the Pacific by Tin Can

2009-06-08T11:18:00.001+10:00

STRUTH !

IN his continuing search for the more weird, whacky and wonderous in the world of travel, DAVID ELLIS says the tiny South Pacific island of Niuafo'ou in Tonga is also known as Tin Can Island.

Its because Niuafo'ou has no harbour and no wharf, and in early days of European visitation and settlement, during bad weather passenger and cargo ships would give it a miss as there was no way of either landing or picking up freight or passengers.

But because mail was so important to the tiny community – there are still only around 650 people live there today – an ingenious local storekeeper came up with the idea of getting mail out to ships in bad weather by using old tin cans in which biscuits had earlier been delivered to his grocery store.

He put the mail inside the tins, soldered them up so they were watertight… and had a powerful local swim them on a floating pole out to ships standing in rough seas off the island.

Ship's captains refilled the tins with the mail for Niuafo'ou, and the habit quickly became known as Tin Can Mail; a local postmaster later convinced the Tongan government to print special Tin Can Mail stamps for the island, and these are still used today and treasured by stamp collectors around the world.

Our pic shows a postcard mailed from the island in 1936 with the official Post Office cancellation DISPATCHED BY TIN CAN MAIL.

NUDGING 80, LARRY’S LIFE IS MUSIC, MUSIC, MUSIC…

2009-06-08T09:03:00.001+10:00

david ellis

WHEN he was little more than knee-high to a grasshopper, and not even at school, Larry Rivera would watch and listen in awe to his mother pickin' the ukulele at their home on Hawaii's paradise island of Kauai.

And when other family or friends dropped around with their own instruments to play and sing island songs, the young Larry would get hold of one of the many spare ukuleles that lay around the place and copy-cat their every movement.

Still not old enough to go to school he was soon playing simple tunes on his own, and already sensing that music would be a part of his life, took ukulele lessons as soon as he did start school... and by 16 had written his first song.

All that was before Japan invaded Pearl Harbour and America became involved in the Second War, and today the near-octogenarian – he's 79 this year – entertains holidaymakers when they arrive at Kauai's Lihue Airport every Tuesday to join a cruise from there, has a spot on a local TV station, and puts on a weekly lunch show at a popular local restaurant entertaining a delighted 400 guests at a time.

Somehow between all this he finds time to compose his own words and music – he's recorded sixty of his compositions on seven CDs and another is about to be released – and joins-in promotions of his island at shopping centres, trade shows, on radio and TV on the American mainland, Canada and Japan.

And as something of a grand finale, he also organises weddings and renewals of vows, and sings, picks his ukulele and plays a guitar at these.

And they're anything but your ordinary wedding or vow renewal: his are conducted on a replica of the barge and on the same lagoon at Kauai's Coco Palms Resort on which Elvis Presley married his sweetheart, Maile (Joan Blackman) in Blue Hawaii.

Larry, who has six children and 16 grandchildren, also manages to find time to conduct tours six days a week of the historic Coco Palms that was trashed by Hurricane Iniki in 1992, telling the history of the now-derelict resort and the making of much of Blue Hawaii there, singing and ukulele pickin' along the way…

Larry and the Coco Palms, one soon learns, are virtually as one: his got his first job there in 1951, and apart from a stint with the Army during the Korean War, has been associated with the place ever since... a whopping 58 years.

When he first started in 1951 his mum would drive him to work at 4pm, he'd serve cocktails 'til dinner, wait on tables through dinner, collect diner's payments as they left, put on a little show for those who stayed on, sleep in the office after that (if anyone turned up late and wanted their key they'd wake him and he'd walk them with a torch through the palms to their bungalow)… and then he'd serve breakfast in the dining room for early departers before his mum would pick him up and take him home at 9am.

Phew! Just listening to all this has you wanting to sit and take a deep breath. And understand why the Governor of Hawaii and Mayor of Kauai got together and declared this extraordinary one-man-show, Kauai's Living Treasure of Music.

After his Army stint Larry was returning to Kauai in 1954 and on the plane sat next to Lyle Guslander, who mentioned he was the new owner of Coco Palms. Larry told him he'd like to get his job back there and Mr Guslander said "Tell the manager I sent you."

Larry did, starting all over again tending the bar, waiting at table, serving breakfast – and singing to guests, including two who asked one night if they could join him on stage: their names were Elvis Presley and Patti Page.

Today he's still there and showing no signs of easing up. If you'd like to visit Kauai and meet Larry, see one of his shows or tour the old Coco Palms Resorts get details from Canada & Alaska Specialist Holidays on 1300 79 49 59, or email sales@canada-alaska.com.au

(NEXT WEEK: Like to get married or renew vows where Elvis tied the knot in Blue Hawaii? We'll tell you how.)

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[] LARRY Rivera during one of his many stage shows on Kauai.

[] DESPITE many plans to restore it, the historic Coco Palms Resort is still derelict and boarded up from Hurricane Iniki in 1992.

[] LARRY sings, strums the guitar and picks his ukulele on historic tours of the old Coco Palms; he does tours six times a week.

BOUTIQUE NEW ZEALAND HOTEL A CLASS ACT

2009-06-07T09:50:00.001+10:00

david ellis

Students of New Zealand's one-time Miss Gibson's Private School for Girls would have trouble coming to grips today with the new-found life of their old alma mater.

For rooms in which six, eight or even more young ladies of the rural well-to-do of New Zealand's South Island once crammed into to sleep, are now individual suites for guests in the plush and re-named Charlotte Jane Boutique Hotel.

And no more are there the communal toilets and showers that would run cold after the first few pupils drained them on shivering winter's mornings; in their place are now vast walk-around ensuites serving each luxury air-conditioned suite.

And gone too are the school-day dining routines that forbade anything but the devouring of meals in strict and stoney silence: In their place today is dining of grand proportions, with 5-star gourmet cuisine shared at a leisurely pace over suitably talkative reds and whites from the best of New Zealand's vineyards and others around the world.

The story of Miss Gibsons Private School for Girls and the 5-star Charlotte Jane Boutique Hotel provides a wonderful step back in time in the history of Christchurch, a time in the 1880s when an Englishman, Captain Frederick Gibson and his wife Mary settled with their family at Lyttleton outside Christchurch where he took up the position of Port Officer.

As the family grew to ten children, the Gibsons moved to a more spacious block, and with 640-pounds given by their two elder school-teacher daughters, built a large and rambling home, part of which they turned into Miss Gibson's Private School for Girls.

In 1891 eight students were enrolled. This quickly doubled, then trebled and by 1922 with nearly 70 pupils – and classes often having to be held outdoors – the Gibsons decided to relocate to a new site at Christchurch's Merivale that their now-historic buildings still occupy today.

Around the mid-1920s Captain Gibson, a stickler for good manners, became increasingly liverish about the name of his school being referred to colloquially as "Gibbies," and called on an old friend, the once-feared Maori warrior Paoro Taki to ponder a more suitable, traditional Maori moniker.

Paoro Taki thought about it for a while and came up with Rangi-Ruru – meaning Wide Sky Shelter – and as the school continued to grow it moved yet again.

The Gibsons sold the newly-located Rangi-Ruru (that today is one of New Zealand's leading church schools,) and with their family growing up and moving away, also moved out of their home-cum-schoolhouse, and the twin-buildings became a womens' refuge, and then flats and finally abandoned.

Then in the mid-1990s Moira and Siegfried Lindlbauer discovered the still-hauntingly gracious buildings and set their hearts to turning them into a fine guest house. Moira, from Singapore and Siegfried from Germany, spent two years ripping out make-shift walls, tearing-down tacked-on classrooms – and discovering priceless, century-old handcarved Kauri and Rimu timber-work from which they painstakingly removed coat upon coat of garish green and pink paint.

They also found in every room intricate cast-iron fireplaces that had been boarded up… and behind cupboards, old newspapers and postcards sent from holidaying students to their teachers.

In 1997 the Lindlbauer's opened Charlotte Jane Guest House (named after one of the first ships to sail from England to Christchurch in 1850,) offering twelve vast guest rooms, each with a gas fire, walk-around ensuites, furnishings of recycled rare timbers, and most with views over the landscaped gardens.

And a tradition of fine dining that continues to this day: gone are the Gibson girls' breakfasts of porridge and toast and tea, replaced with fresh fruits and cereals, warm breads and croissants, fruit juices, eggs and bacon and lamb cutlets and grilled tomatoes…

Gone too are the girls' night meals of mutton chop stews, cold silverside and slabs of bread – and in their place such choices as prawns marinated with Moroccan herbs on a bed of tabbouleh, goat cheese soufflé with red pepper coulis, Canterbury lamb shanks on sweet potato and carrot mash with Cognac peppercorn jus, beef Bearnaise, Grand Marnier crème brulee with almond biscotti, sticky date pudding with vanilla bean ice-cream…

(If such suite life appeals, Charlotte Jane Boutique Hotel prices start from NZ$280 per night for two people, including full-cooked breakfasts; book through travel agents or www.charlotte-jane.co.nz)

PHOTO CAPTIONS:

[] CLASS OF ITS OWN – the one-time Miss Gibson's School for Girls, now a 5-star boutique hotel

[] VINTAGE offerings: the wine cellar at the Charlotte Jane Boutique Hotel

[] SUITE LIFE in one of the hotel's luxury suites

WAIKIKI HOTEL LEANS TOWARDS YESTER-YEAR

2009-06-07T09:44:00.001+10:00

David Ellis

There is, in this travel writing game, an inherent risk of madness brought about by an occupational hazard known as TSI.

TSI is The Site Inspection, a professional encounter that's been known to reduce granite-hearted men to tears, morph otherwise normally rational human beings into gibbering idiots, and in worst-case scenarios, have travel-hardened scribes pass-up free drinks to avoid a TSI ambush.

TSI is what these writers engage-in in the hope that they we will splash enough ink around their pages about the hotels or resorts they visit, to in fact pay for their stay ten times over.

Every stay invariably begins, ends, or is interrupted by TSI. The occasion is generally conducted by a smiling young thing who has done it twenty-something times already that week for travel agents, writers, meeting organisers, wedding coordinators and anyone else who can help put bums in beds.

And they have it down so pat that if they miss a floor in the elevator they'll happily be describing what a beautiful ballroom we're in, whereas in fact we're in the dunnies on the level above.

So it was with horror that fellow scribes learned that in Hawaii recently, we occupied a couple of spare hours voluntarily taking a TSI.

"He's finally lost it," was one colleague's summation. "Keep it up, and you'll go blind," warned another.

But we convinced the sceptics that roaming Waikiki's oldest hostelry (the Sheraton Moana Surfrider, circa 1901) and learning its little-known history, was time both professionally and personally rewarding.

And there was no trim young thing leading us, but rather a happily overweight bloke (the result, he says, of a ritual of fried Spam and egg breakfasts,) who sported an Aloha shirt and a lei in place of a clipboard.

His name was Tony Bissen, a likeable out-of-the-ordinary Moana Reception Clerk who is so proud of his historic hotel that six times a week for the past seventeen years he's walked guests and other visitors for free hour-or-so journeys amidst its corridors of memories.

And there are no dunnies in place of ballrooms, no comparisons of twin-bedded rooms with single-bedded rooms, rooms with garden views as opposed to one's with beach views, rooms with spas compared to rooms without… or the obligatory Royal Suite that king someone-or-other once slept in.

Rather, Tony begins with a flickering black-and-white film of old Waikiki, talks us through a fascinating collection of historic hotel paraphernalia including bulky woollen neck-to-knee bathers, century-old dinner-ware, postcards, old steamer trunks and their fashion contents – and a room key recently returned by the family of a guest who'd forgotten to give it back it after a stay in 1920.

He then shows us lop-sided windows caused when the half-built hotel started sinking in the sand 106 years ago and had to be propped-up, and a corridor with a decided downhill slope caused by that same sinking feeling.

He points out the massive banyan tree in the garden under which Webley Edwards broadcast Hawaii Calls every Saturday afternoon for nearly 40 years through 650 radio stations world-wide.

And takes us into a yester-year of old-world charms supported by 21st century technology and indulgences, rattling off homilies along the way: Mickey Rooney took surfing lessons here, Admiral Bird rested at the hotel before going to the Antarctic, Clarke Gable became mates here with legendary surfer Duke Kahanamoku, Shirley Temple sang The Good Ship Lollipop under the banyan tree, Sinatra crooned From Here to Eternity… and Amelia Erhard called it home for a night or two.

And what about the Mystery of Room 120? Was it murder, or was it misfortune? Tony says that's another story for another day…

To join Tony's free tours – he shows over 6000 visitors a year around the hotel – simply turn up at the Sheraton Moana Surfrider on Waikiki at 11am or 5pm any Monday, Wednesday or Friday; you don't have to be a hotel guest – most participants actually come from other resorts.

……………

TWISTED view of Waikiki: Tony Bissen and just some of the Sheraton Moana Surfrider's lop-sided window frames, re-cut to fit after the hotel got that sinking feeling.

YESTER-YEAR charms with 21st century technology make for stay to remember at Waikiki's oldest on-the-beach hotel.

Struth! 30,000 Jaffas on the loose

2009-06-01T11:09:00.001+10:00

STRUTH !

IN his continuing search for the more weird, whacky and wonderous in the world of travel, DAVID ELLIS says that if you thought it a ridiculous waste of pocket-money rolling Jaffas down the aisle at the local Saturday afternoon flicks, consider how much it will cost to let 30,000 of the little red critters loose on a public street in New Zealand in July.

It's all part of the annual Cadbury Chocolate Festival at Dunedin that celebrates the local Cadbury factory being responsible for 75 per cent of all New Zealand's commercial chocolate production.

And it's not any old street they'll be rolled down: Baldwin Street is recognised as the world's steepest roadway, falling at an average rate of one metre in five over its 350-metre length, and at one stage one-in-three.

All 30,000 Jaffas will be numbered and sold on behalf of local charities at a dollar each, with the 20,000+ spectators who turn out for the bizarre event hoping to win prizes ranging from holidays to mobile phones (and of course chocolate hampers) for the first handful of Jaffas across the line.

The Chocolate Festival will be held in Dunedin from July 11 to 17, with activities from the Great Jaffa Roll to kids cooking events (with chocolate of course,) Choc-Art exhibitions and an evening of Chocolate, Jazz and Shiraz.

Travel agents have details.

WORLD THEIR OYSTER FOR AIRLINE PIONEERS

2009-06-01T11:06:00.001+10:00

david ellis

THE first thing most would-be company owners do when musing over what to call their new outfit is to bring in the big guns of marketing, advertising, logo design and corporate law.

But back in 1946 two blokes who were to create what would become one of the world's most successful airlines, had no interest in such normal business practicalities: instead, one simply went to a Manila pub to get inspiration there, telling some foreign correspondent mates he drank with when visiting the Philippines, that he wanted a name for an airline he was planning with a business partner in Hong Kong.

Over a philosophical glass or eight the wordsmiths came up with Cathay Pacific – "Cathay" being the historic name for China, and "Pacific" because the partners wanted to one day fly to Australia.

And so an airline was born, its owners Roy Farrell, an American and Sydney de Kantzow, an Australian having known each other from their Second War flying days in Asia, and each having a vision for an airline linking China, Asia and Australia.

Both had business interests in Shanghai, but moved to Hong Kong where they paid HK$2 to register their partnership, and in September 1946 launched Cathay Pacific with a cheap surplus US Air Force Douglas DC-3 they dubbed "Betsy."

It was an instant success, and an import-export company they set up to generate airfreight business equally so – particularly de Kantzow's idea to fly fresh Sydney rock oysters to Hong Kong for luxury-strapped British expats.

To meet demand for seats and airfreight the partners bought a second DC-3 within a few months, five more the following year and two Catalina flying boats to operate to the Portuguese colony of Macao off the coast of China; in their first six months they carried 3,000 passengers and 15,000 kilograms of cargo between Asia and Australia alone

But like most airlines, turbulence lay in wait for the fledgling Cathay Pacific, and in 1948 the British Governor of colonial Hong Kong dropped the bombshell that as "foreigners" the partners could in fact not own more than 20 per cent of their own airline. They would need a British partner who would relieve them of 80 per cent.

John "Jock" Swire, head of prominent Hong Kong trading company, Butterfield and Swire liked the idea, invested the required 80 per cent and assumed an active role in Cathay Pacific's day-to-day operations.

Then in 1948, Cathay made unwanted history when the Catalina flying to Macao became the world's first victim of air piracy: a group of Chinese gunmen hijacked the plane inflight, mistakenly believing there was a cargo of gold aboard. They shot the pilot and the plane crashed into China's Pearl River estuary.

Ironically the only survivor of the 23 passengers and three crew was one of the hijackers, Wong Yu-man who was held for three years but never charged as neither Portuguese Macao nor British Hong Kong had laws covering air piracy; on release from prison in 1951 Wong died in China in what one newspaper dryly observed "appeared a suitably contrived accident."

And as a result of the hijacking, Cathay Pacific became the world's first airline to screen passengers and freight with metal detectors.

Further turbulence followed when Britain and Australia, protecting their own BOAC (later British Airways) and Qantas, restricted Cathay Pacific flights to their countries, and it was many years before both routes were fully freed to Cathay Pacific.

Another incident in 1972 once-again focused world attention on Cathay Pacific. After one of its jet-engine Convairs crashed in Vietnam, Hong Kong police charged a Thai police officer with sabotage and murder, alleging he'd put a bomb in the bag of his wife whom he had insured heavily before putting her aboard with their child.

He was acquitted and no one else was ever charged.

Today Cathay Pacific Airways operates 97 passenger aircraft and 24 freighters to 120 destinations world-wide, employs 18,800 staff globally and carries approximately 1-million passengers a month.

Pretty good results from a beer in a bar, and one old DC-3 – which, incidentally, is on display at Hong Kong's Science Museum having been sold by Cathay in 1955, and bought back 30 years later after being found still flying freight around the Australian Outback.

PHOTO CAPTIONS:

[] BOEING 777-300ER – flagship type of Cathay Pacific's fleet of 121 aircraft.

[] ONE of the airline's first two Douglas DC-3s, restored and on display in Hong Kong.

[] AUSTRALIAN wartime pilot, Sydney de Kantzow (second from right) with fellow pilots before he co-founded Cathay Pacific Airways.

COUNCIL RUBBISHED OVER SHAKESPEARE’s THEATRE

2009-05-18T14:07:00.001+10:00

david ellis

CLOSE to a million people a year visit the replica of Shakespeare's old Globe Theatre in London's Thames-side Southwark, either to just gawk or to take-in a performance.

Probably only a few ever ponder its history, one that's as contorted as anything the Bard himself could have penned – and he was certainly no slouch when it came to matters of intrigue.

That history goes back nearly four-and-a-half centuries to 1576 when the forerunner to the original Globe Theatre was built in nearby Shoreditch by actor-entrepreneur James Burbage, who uninspiringly for an actor simply called it the Theatre.

Shakespeare was one of its early troupe of resident actors called The Chamberlain's (later The King's) Men; the Theatre flourished for twenty years until Burbage died in 1597, and the owner of the site grabbed it in lieu of alleged unpaid land rent.

The King's Men moved to another playhouse, and between Christmas and New Year's Eve 1598, doubtless fuelled by voluminous good cheer and with the landowner at his up-country estate, moved-in and demolished the Theatre.

They stored the pieces for a year before rebuilding it in Southwark as The Globe, with the deceased Burbage's sons selling shares in the new enterprise: Shakespeare who was now both a writer and actor for The Globe, bought 12.5%.

Actors had an enormous work-load, some memorising 5000 lines covering thirty parts for a different play for every day of the week, except Sundays, Christmas and Lent which they got off.

And as most of the public at the time could neither read nor write, a black flag would fly over the roof of The Globe signifying a tragedy was being performed that day, a white flag for a comedy, and a red one for an historical play.

Then during a performance of Shakespeare's Henry the Eighth in 1613 the audience got more for their entry Penny than they'd expected: a stage cannon set fire to the thatch roof, and The Globe burned to the ground.

A replacement theatre was built on the site, but soon after England's Puritan Parliament ordered its demolition and its foundations buried to remove all traces of The Globe, slamming it as "a very great annoyance to noblemen and gentlemen, with all manner of vagrants and lewd persons attending, and with drums and trumpets greatly disturbing ministers and parishioners at Divine Service."

It appeared The Globe theatre had finally succumbed forever, but fast-forward 300-years to the 1960s, and not to an Englishman but to an American Shakespearean actor and movie director, Sam Wanamaker who embarked on a twenty year campaign to have a new Globe Theatre rise in London.

Wanamaker's research put the foundations of The Globe under a derelict brewery, warehouse and row of brothels ear-marked by the London Council for demolition.

But the Council had little interest in Wanamaker's idea of a new Globe rising on the historic site, preferring instead a slab of concrete the size of a football field for a garbage recycling plant.

Wanamaker persevered with his campaign to have the Council reverse its decision, and during this time found parts of the original Globe Theatre under an adjacent Heritage listed house – which the Council again put off-limits to him because of its Heritage listing.

Eventually he won his fight with a new Council giving the go-ahead for the new Globe Theatre, rather than a recycling plant, to rise 230-metres from the original; sadly Wanamaker died four years before the Queen officially opened it in 1997.

And like the original, the remarkable 'O' shaped building is made of oak without a single bolt or nail in it, everything instead being mortised and dowelled, with walls of original-style lime plaster over oak lathe-and-staff, and a thatch roof.

The stage extends from the rear of the 'O' with a pit area before it in which "groundlings" (dubbed "stinkards" on hot days in Shakespeare's time) stand during performances, while there are also three levels of seating galleries.

But the new theatre holds only 1700 compared with the original's 3000; regular tours include a Shakespeare Exhibition, a history of the original Globe, and another of the infamous inns, 'stews' (brothels,) bear-baiting and pit-dog fighting arenas that once surrounded it.

Travel agents can include tours or performances in UK packages. www.shakespeares-globe.org

…………………..

[] THE new Globe Theatre: a garbage recycling plant had been planned on the historic site amid London suburbia.

[] A SHAKESPEAREAN performance inside the new Globe.

STRUTH with david ellis

2009-05-18T10:01:00.001+10:00

STRUTH !

IN his continuing search for the more weird, whacky and wonderous in the world of travel, DAVID ELLIS finds that between them, every fortnight the fifty aircraft of Australia's Royal Flying Doctor Service fly the equivalent of a return trip to the Moon.

And on an average day, their onboard medical crews treat 717 patients, hold 39 clinics and evacuates 99 emergency patients.

All this of course doesn't come cheap: it costs $180m a year to run the service, the money coming from Federal, State and Territory governments, commercial contracts, private donations, philanthropic grants, private trusts, events and fundraising.

If you'd like to help towards this with a donation, or get more information, contact Deb Hunt, RFDS (02) 9941 8888 or deb.hunt@flyingdoctors.org.au or visit www.flyingdoctors.org.au

WING-NOTE: AN early flying doctor at Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory always carried a bag of old bolts with him, and when returning from the Outback with a patient would fly directly over the local mission station hospital... the number of bolts he dropped on the hospital roof would let the duty matron know whether the incoming patient needed a car or an ambulance to get to the hospital from the airstrip, and the kind of attention - from minor to major - they were going to require.

The mission station is still there, complete with the thousands of dings in its corrugated iron roof.

STRUTH! Pack your Pooch with Pet Airways

2009-05-11T09:44:00.001+10:00

IN his continuing search for the more weird, whacky and wonderous in the world of travel, DAVID ELLIS finds that when an American couple, Dan Wiesel and Alysa Binder couldn't find an airline that could assure 100% safety and comfort for their pet Jack Russell terrier, Zoe in the cargo compartments of planes when they went on holidays, they went out and leased a Beechcraft 1900 turboprop to do the job for them.

But now it's not just for Zoe: when they mentioned what they were planning to friends and business associates, Dan and Alysa got so much response they turned their holiday with Zoe into a full-time business: Pet Airways that will carry pets-only to join their owners on vacation.

Initially they'll be servicing New York City, Baltimore/Washington, Chicago, Denver and Los Angeles from July, but plan more cities for their pampered "Pawsengers" that are carried in what's normally the Beechraft's pressurised passenger compartment, with seats and overhead lockers removed.

Holidaymakers fly on regular airlines, and their pets follow aboard Pet Airways in carriers supplied by their owners to ensure both owners and pets are happy with the way their dogs and cats travels.

And pets are offered drinks in the Paws Lodge before flights, staff ensure that pets relieve themselves before boarding, and a "Pet Attendant" travels with them so they're not distressed while flying.

Did someone say "only in America…."

SIGNALS FOR CRUISE SINGLES: TIE A YELLOW RIBBON…

2009-05-11T09:34:00.002+10:00

david ellis

WHEN travel agent Jenny Williams sets off for a cruise with one of her regular groups of mature-age singles travellers, she goes with a Be Prepared attitude worthy of the finest in the Scouting movement.

Because amongst the many accoutrements a good travel agent always has tucked away in their travel bag, Jenny also has a few dozen pairs of industrial-strength ear-plugs – and a roll of yellow ribbon.

A travel agent specialising largely in the cruise market for some 38-years, Jenny in more recent times has been putting together and escorting group-cruise holidays for singles in the 45-to-65 age group, and sometimes even a tad older.

"I love travelling with them because they're mature, love life and have fun – and they're too old to be head-bangers, and too young to qualify for the blue rinse set," she says of her clients, who come from all walks of life: professionals, office workers, farmers, retirees, once an aircraft salesman and another time a Qantas pilot.

"Some are divorcees, some have lost a partner, some have simply never married and enjoy travelling in the company of others – we even have some who come with us because their partners don't want to cruise," Jenny says.

Her cruises have been mainly to the South Pacific and Asia, and while she normally takes around thirty singles, last February she merged her group with another group of 250 holidaymakers a fellow agent had organised aboard Sun Princess for 13-nights to New Zealand.

Jenny gets as much information as she can about each of her cruise-goers so she can match them as best as possible with those of the same sex to share cabins. "Best of all, as they're sharing they're not having to pay those dreaded single supplements," she says.

"Where I can, I organise for those from different capitals cities to meet together before we sail so they get to know something of each other… quite often its at these gatherings that they find out who have common interests and decide whom they might like to share with.

"It usually works out very well – but of course there's always the odd reason for those ear-plugs, and everyone says they in fact work really well!"

Jenny says the death of Diane Brimble on an Australian cruise ship in 2002 gave her business a bit of a jolt. "What happened to poor Diane saw bookings for singles simply melt away, but if anything when the shock wore off we rebounded stronger than ever – I think because of our being organised and escorted aspect."

Currently she's putting together a group to join a 14-day "Cruise, Blues & Rock & Roll" tour to New Zealand aboard Dawn Princess in February next year. "This is right into our age group, with music of our era performed by such Australian greats as James Reyne, Joe Camilleri, Russel Morris, Lisa Edwards and Mike Brady and Band," she says.

And in July 2010 she's booked space for an Aussie singles group for a 17-night luxury cruise aboard Dawn Princess again, this time from New York to the Caribbean, through the Panama Canal, Mexico and Los Angeles.

"I don't hold clients' hands," Jenny says. "While we have dinner together every night as a group, I leave them to do their own shore excursions, shopping and socialising by day, but am always there on board as a 'friendly face' if they have a query or need."

And while she says these aren't "view mat" ("view to matrimony") cruises, she's had two weddings result from her cruises, and says two other couples are now in permanent relationships.

Which brings us to that roll of yellow ribbon she always carries with her. "Yes, sometimes those of the opposite sex do find each other attractive during a cruise, and discover they might want to spend some more-personal time together.

"So if you come back to your cabin one day and find who you are sharing with has borrowed a bit of my yellow ribbon and tied it to the door handle, its a signal for you to go and have a drink and come back later!!!"

To learn more of Jenny's upcoming group cruises for singles, or individual cruise itineraries, phone Delphinus Cruises on (03) 9783 5119 or check-out www.cruisedelphinus.com.au

PHOTO CAPTION:

[] JENNY Williams: "Mature age singles are fun to travel with… too old to be head-bangers, and too young for the blue rinse set."

STRUTH! That's a ton o' tucker

2009-05-09T15:47:00.001+10:00

IN HIS CONTINUING SEARCH FOR THE WORLD'S MORE WEIRD, WHACKY AND UNUSUAL, DAVID ELLIS has found that the sea certainly does appear to give holidaymakers something of an extra in the way of appetites.

On an average South Pacific or New Zealand cruise, passengers and crew on P&O's Pacific Sun chomp and slurp their way through 80 tonnes of food and drink, including 50,000 eggs, a tonne of bacon, 2.8 tonnes of chicken, 2.5 of rice, 1.5 of pineapples, a tonne of lettuce, 375kg of coffee, 5000 litres of milk and 7500 tea bags.

Then there's the few tonnes of beef, nearly as much lamb and veal, a tonne or so of fish, potatoes by the truckload, enough soup to fill a milk tanker, more fresh fruit and vegies to cut up than you'd like to think about, and enough breakfast cereals to keep the average family regular for a year.

And to clean the 13,000 plates, 10,000 glasses and 15,000 pieces of cutlery needed to down all this every day, a bank of 29 dishwashers is in service almost around the clock.

Struth! A Night in the Dungeon

2009-05-09T15:37:00.001+10:00

Malmaison Prison Hotel Oxford

IN his continuing search for the more weird, whacky and wonderous in the world of travel, DAVID ELLIS says you can now sentence yourself to a night in a centuries-old prison in the grounds of William the Conqueror’s circa 1071 castle in Oxford. The Malmaison Hotel has 94 suites that have each been created by knocking out the inner walls of three former prison cells in the defunct gaol, making sleeping quarters in two of them and a separate ensuite in the third; the hotel has a bar, brasserie and plenty of 4-star facilities. And old lags who once did time here would doubtless get a chuckle out of knowing that guests who decide to lock themselves up for a night's prison experience – doors to suites are the original heavy steel jobs and there are still bars on the windows – pay $347 a night for the privilege. For a bit extra there’s the “Guvnor’s House” that has four-poster beds and a mini-cinema; if you want to do time here, see travel agents.

STRUTH ! Tree Mail

2009-05-09T15:35:00.002+10:00

IN his continuing search for the more weird, whacky and wonderous in the world of travel, DAVID ELLIS finds South Africa's postal service began 150 years before European settlement of the country – and that the first letter "posted" there was literally given the boot.

It was back in 1500 when ships of many nations were stopping off in what is now South Africa to take-on water and whatever food they could barter, that a Portuguese bloke came up with the idea of putting mail for delivery back home, or from whence they'd recently come, in an old seaman's boot under a tree in what is now Mossel Bay; ships heading in the opposite direction would clear the boot and deliver its contents to the countries to which it was addressed

The first letter left this way by Pedro de Aitade, a naval commander, was addressed to the King of Portugal. It was found a year later in the boot by the Third East India Fleet, and doing the right thing, they had it delivered to Portugal and the King.

Today a large stone replica of the original boot stands on de Aitade's original boot site – 509 years after he left the first letter there in 1500 – and mail posted in this boot-shaped Post Box is franked "Post Office Tree Mossel Bay."

ROLLIN’ DOWN THE RIVER – HOW GORGES

2009-05-09T15:24:00.001+10:00

david ellis

MOST hail it China's greatest building job since the Great Wall was started in the 7th century BC and took two-thousand years to finish.

But while the Three Gorges Dam has so far taken just fifteen years of hard yakka and has another two to go, it's also attracted its fair share of doomsayers, self-anointed structural genii and general ratbags.

A massive 2km-wide barrier of steel and concrete across the great Yantze River in China's south-east, the dam has already cost over AU$50-billion and will soak up another $10b before doing everything its being built to do: generate a whopping 22,500MW of electricity, control flooding in the lower Yangtze in wetter months, and release water to these areas in drier times.

In the process of building this gargantuan wall that's 101-metres high, 115 through at its base and twice as wide as the Sydney Harbour Bridge and its approaches are long, over 1.24 million people had to be re-located to newly-created towns and cities as their original communities slowly drowned under a spreading 23-trillion litres of water.

And thousands of cultural and historical relics were also moved to the safety of higher ground – while one 200-year old temple and a rare, attached 9-storey wooden pavilion had another dam built around them, leaving them sitting on what's now an island within the growing 1000-sq kilometre reservoir.

The doomsayers and their hangers-on have been having a field day knocking all this, pointing out that 1300 archaeological sites have been lost forever under the dam's 100-metre deep waters, and claiming that with the pressure of so much water behind it, the dam will one day burst like an over-ripe lychee and wipe out millions living along the Yangtze below it.

Or that in a good earthquake the whole lot will come tumbling down with the same catastrophic results, while Siberan Crane will lose their winter-holiday wetlands on the Yangtze, the river's population of indigenous sturgeon will be virtually wiped out by human intervention in the natural flow of the river, and that its dolphin population will go the same way.

The idea of a dam across the Yangzte is nothing new: Sun Yat-sen, the "Father of Modern China" first came up with the idea in 1919, twenty years later the Japanese invaded China and drew up plans for a Yangtze Dam, America also thought about one at War's end, and in 1949 when the Communists took over China they also got their engineers to mull over the idea.

But it wasn't until 1992 that work finally started on the Three Gorges Dam.

As well as river-flow control, the 32 massive generators in the biggest hydro power-station in the world will produce a third more electricity than the combined output of every power station in NSW. This alone is expected to save over 100-million tonnes of greenhouse gases a year from China's notorious coal-fired power-stations, while by controlling river flows and depth, shipping costs on the Yangtze have been reduced by 25% and river freight capacity increased six times.

And interestingly it's created a whole new industry: river-cruising, with around a dozen tourist-ships now operating on the Yangtze. One international company, Viking River Cruises sails 12- to 17-night luxury cruises between Shanghai and Beijing, including with some voyages, side-flights to see the Great Wall and Terracotta Warriors.

These cruises offer a chance to see vast areas of China up-close and personal with daily shore excursions to cultural, historic and religious sites, a local zoo to see the pandas, modern shopping centres contrasting with village markets, and a school sponsored by Viking Cruise Lines at which the kids sing Chinese songs and encourage visitors to put on their own impromptu singalong of national anthems or folk-songs.

Our Jolly Swagman usually gets a good work-out.

There's also an inspection of the dam and the locks that move vessels 100-metres between the lower Yangtze and its upper reaches behind the dam.

Viking's guest suites have balconies, dining is exceptional with a mix of Western and Chinese cuisines, there's an Observation Lounge and Bar, Sundeck and Bar, gym and onboard entertainment.

For fly/cruise details on Viking Century Sun's cruises on the Yangtze being sold exclusively to Australian guests, phone Cruiseco on 1800 225 656 or visit www.cruising.com.au

PHOTO CAPTIONS

[] CHINA'S Three Gorges Dam – biggest building job since the Great Wall

[] LOCKS raise and lower freighters and cruise ships over 100m between the Lower Yangtze and the Upper Yangtze behind the dam

[] VIKING River Cruises' Royal Viking Sun amid China's spectacular Three Gorges

Struth! Smugglers Gulch

2009-04-24T15:57:00.001+10:00

STRUTH !

IN his continuing search for the more weird, whacky and wonderous in the world of travel, DAVID ELLIS says that if you've ever wondered what its like to be a Mexican making a bolt across No Man's Land on the border with the USA, you can now experience it for yourself.

You'll find yourself being chased by (fake) police firing blanks, scrambling under viaducts, crossing rickety makeshift bridges, wading through rivers, sludging through cornfields, and finally scrambling under a barbed wire fence similar to that into the US... all in complete night-time pitch blackness.

Local Hnanhnus Indians who own the Parque Eco Alberto three hours out of Mexico City put on regular "alien running" tours to help tourists understand the trauma of running the border with gun-wielding police in pursuit; it costs US$18 for the four hour experience – and your guides can include women with babies and children who play out the role of illegal immigrant with you.

Over three thousands tourists have taken part in the tours to date.

Look at www.parqueecoalberto.com.mx

BUY-UP A PART OF BRITSH HISTORY – ‘OWZAT?

2009-04-24T14:45:00.001+10:00

david ellis

THE "FOR SALE" sign has gone up in the little English village of Linkenholt in Hampshire, and if you've a lazy $23-million pounds (that's about AU$47-million) it's your chance to go one-up on the neighbours.

Because when you hand over your cheque, what is now your neighbour's will become yours, as your little investment will not just get you the circa-1871 School House, nor just one of the 12th century farming lots, nor just the quaint one-building "shopping centre" where you can lean on the counter and meet the forty or so neighbours who've lived here all their lives.

It'll get you the entire village. That's 22-houses and cottages, a 140-year old Rectory, two smithing businesses with working forges, that one shop, 600-plus hectares of farm- and grass-lands, another 170ha of woodlands in which the landed gentry part with very serious money to shoot pheasant and grouse on the surrounding North Wessex Downs, and even a cricket ground and pavilion.

And a fence around the whole lot.

But what it won't get you is the1000-year old Manor House: you'll have to buy that separately when it comes on the market later this year if you want to play Lord of the Manor.

Nor will it get you the 12th century St Peters village church next to the Rectory, because according to the estate agent handling the sale of the village, "that belongs to God."

And neither will you get your own village pub: the only one in Linkenholt closed down a few years ago and has been converted into a private residence, but a short walk to one of the neighbouring villages will get you a pint.

But you will get to own everything else in this quintessential piece of rural England that dates back to before Domesday (1086) and whose sale, according to estate agent Tim Sherston in wonderfully British understatement, is "very unusual indeed.

"In fact," he adds, "I can't recall the last time a village came up for sale."

But Linkenholt has, however, been bought and sold numerous times in its 1000-year history.

Earliest records show that the Manor of Linkenholt was granted by successive monarchs to the Abbots of St Peter, Gloucester and that to raise funds for the church, they rented Linkenholt out in its entirety to various business interests.

One of the earliest actual sales of the whole village was to a fellow named Emanuel Badd who bought it in 1629 for 2000-pounds, and sold it fifty-one years later for 12,000-pounds to a Dutch investor, Robert Styles who literally threw good money after Badd.

The Styles' family remained owners of Linkenholt until the early 1800s when it changed hands several times, sold at auction in the 1960s for 540,000-pounds, and was bought soon after by colourful sportsman and philanthropist Herbert Blagrave for an undisclosed amount.

Blagrave played lower-order cricket for Gloucestershire, and in his only first-class appearance for the Club in 1922, was caught out for a duck in the first innings and for twelve in the second, and went back to the lower grades.

He had more luck as a racehorse trainer than a cricketer however, bringing-home 350 winners in a 50-year career, and was also a director of Southampton Football Club.

Blagrave was fascinated by Linkenholt's history, yet while he owned the village and poured millions into the development of its agricultural lands and sporting facilities, he never lived there amid what he called "its remoteness and tranquillity" just 120km south-west of London.

And with no heir, when he died in 1981 aged 82 Herbert Blagrave left his village to a charitable trust with instructions that its income be used to help sick children, the elderly, and injured jockeys; after owning Linkeholt for the past 28-years the Trust has decided to sell and to invest its money elsewhere.

Whoever buys the village will find the well-maintained houses, cottages and commercial buildings, and the surrounding farmlands, will bring-in around 350,000-pounds a year in rent.

And there'll be a further 40,000-pounds annually on top of this from shooters going after pheasant and grouse in what's considered one of Britain's finest high-bird shooting areas.

If being Lord of the Manor appeals, email Jackson-Stops & Staff in Newbury on newbury@jackson-stops.co.uk for full details.

PHOTO CAPTIONS:

[] LINKENHOLT MANOR FROM THE AIR – OVER 1000 YEARS OLD

[] A THATCHER RE-ROOFS AN HISTORIC VILLAGE HOUSE

[] THE FARMLANDS THAT ARE INCLUDED IN THE SALE

[] PART OF THE VILLAGE

STRUTH: Rolex rort a furphy

2009-04-21T10:39:00.001+10:00

STRUTH !

IN his continuing search for the more weird, whacky and wonderous in the world of travel, DAVID ELLIS says that currently doing the rounds in some sections of the media, is a story that holidaymakers are financing their vacations on Spain's Costa del Sol with more claims on insurance companies every day for lost or stolen Rolex Oyster watches than Rolex actually make.

Its a furphy: Rolex make over 2000 Oyster watches a day... and insurance companies say any suggestion they're being hit with more than 2000 claims for such lost or stolen time-pieces every day on the Costa del Sol - which equates to over 730,000 claims a year from one beachside resort alone - is pure urban myth.

Summer Rocks : Music Festivals in Australia

2009-04-20T17:12:00.005+10:00

As the thermometer starts to rise Australians turn their thoughts to the beach, BBQs, summer holidays and music festivals. The amount of music festivals that are held in the summer months in Oz seem to increase every year. The increase is fine with me. I like nothing better than spending a day with my friends listening to fantastic music meeting new people and experiencing the best of summer.

The festivals now cover all sorts of music from folk to funk, dance to heavy rock so everyone is catered for. Here are of some of the best.

Summer kicks of with “Homebake” in Sydney. A celebration of Australian music whose tickets are as rare as hens teeth but it’s a brilliant day. Music of all genres and tastes are represented here by Australia’s best.

The Falls festivals are held simultaneously in Lorne in Victoria and Marion Bay in Tasmania. The 3-day festival helps send the old year out with a bang and welcome the new year with a visceral howl. Featuring international and local rock acts that perform at both venues. This is one for the rock fans. Flying into Avalon Airport or Hobart Airport and hiring a car is the easiest way to get to Lorne or Marion Bay. This also guarantees a place for you to stay at both venues (that’s if you get kicked out of your tent for snoring).

In Brisbane as the world wakes up to a brand new year BBQ Breaks shakes the River Stage. No time for rest as some of the finest dance music in Australia is on offer. A lazy afternoon, by the river, reflecting on the year that’s past.

My personal favorite is the Big Day Out. This is a touring festival that takes in all capital cities except for Darwin and Canberra and even crosses the pond to Auckland, New Zealand. With new acts, legends and the hottest bands in the world, covering rock hip-hop, dance, folk and metal this is truly a big day. Friends of mine have even done the Big Road Trip and followed the festival around the country.

Festival survival guide - Some things that will help you have a great day.

Water- really this is the top priority above all else. Its easy to dehydrate when your having so much fun.
A Meeting Place- Very important as you can get lost very easily. This place also needs to be easily found by everyone.
A small tip: Don’t expect your mobile to always work. Technology is a wonderful thing but when 40,000 people are all texting and calling at the same time the networks get backed up. Most text messages arrive hours if not days later so have a back up plan.
Transport – Be it a hire car or your own wheels. For festivals that go overnight or a couple of days it provides a safe lock up for your things and also a great meeting place.
A rain poncho- Keeps you dry this is obvious.
Sunscreen and hat – Keeps you from turning in to lobster and ruining your day. Many venues are without much shade so this can be very important.
Anti-bacterial Hand Gel – ‘Porta-Loo’ need I say more
Re-sealable plastic bags- Great for storing mobile phones and cameras
Cash – Not too many ATMs and they run out of money easily.

I try not to be to regimented in who I want to see play now at festivals as you can uncover some amazing music if you just go with the flow. Years ago I was lucky to watch a new band by the name of Coldplay who played early and to relatively small numbers. They now fill stadiums.

So grab a couple of friends secure your tickets early and get ready to celebrate summer and great music.