Travel

In spite of its recent addition, the Paparoa Track is already the fourth most popular Great Walk on the network. The 55km stretch was selected as a rival to the Milford and Kepler, and trampers have been flocking to walk it since 2020.

The first new track to be added in 27 years, the first purpose-built trail and the first dedicated all-year bike and hike track, there is plenty to be excited about. Every corner, every step of Paparoa – from Blackball to Punakaiki – has been carefully considered.

Though, from the trail, it was hard to see where this popularity came from. Through the windows of Ces Clark Hut, it was hard to see anything at all. Rain was running full pelt into the windows. Flax and wind grass flailing in the grey, the cloud left few clues of the view where the hillside fell away.

The other group in the hut were less concerned. An all-female party of walkers in their 60s, celebrating a birthday, they had seen the trail in much worse conditions. In fact, this was their second attempt.

Mary held up a photo from the aborted trip. There was the very same window under three inches of snow. “And that was January last year,” she said. “January!”

While it didn’t provide any further clarity on the view, it confirmed that things got pretty extreme up here. This part of the coast has a reputation for hardiness.

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Antarctica is the coldest, most remote continent. It’s also one of the fastest-growing tourist destinations on the planet. But as temperatures rise in this pristine ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ destination, some tourism luminaries are asking if we should be visiting at all. Thomas Bywater reports from the shore of ‘Continent Number 7′, wondering if he should have stayed at home.

Last year, the body governing for tourism in Antarctica, IAATO, projected annual visitors to the frozen continent would exceed 100,000 for the first time. Considering tourists numbered just a few hundred three decades ago, it’s an increase in visitation more befitting a theme park, not a science reserve.

As issues of climate impact and over-tourism loom large, this milestone has sparked alarm.

Some say Antarctica is the last place on Earth that tourists should be visiting.

It’s a destination I’ve been fascinated with too, ever since being trapped on the edge of the sub-Antarctic during the the Covid 19 shutdown. But, after a brief pandemic pause, annual visitor numbers have continued to climb unaffected.

Tourism has long since eclipsed science as the number one reason people visit the southern continent. Though this distinction has been blurred in places. Many research stations are now inviting visitors and some tourist ships are being used as platforms for science.

This new emphasis on embedded research programmes has raised the issue of “science washing”.

With each data-collection mission, university researcher or guest lecturer taken on Antarctic cruise ships, it’s getting harder to tell the difference between token science and genuine research.

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“Today you are tourists!” The words excited the women in red embroidered shawls.

It’s not a phrase that is said often in Quechua, one of Peru’s indigenous languages.

The 16 women from Huilloc Alto clutched their blue ID cards and train tickets for the Inca Rail service, waiting at the station.

Despite living in the Sacred Valley, many of them had never been on a train let alone visited the Incan city of Machu Picchu.

Their bright red shawls and traditional ‘Montera’ basket hats, full of fabric flowers turned heads. Once aboard the train, they retrieved battered phone cases from under their hats, to take selfies and photos for the family back in Huilloc.

It was a day of many firsts, more than 500 years in the making.

Despite being neighbours to Peru’s biggest tourist attraction, only five per cent of highlanders ever get the chance to visit. Their ancestors built the 15th century fortress and they still speak the language of the Incan stonemasons, but for many Machu Picchu remains a mystery. “My husband has been but not me,” said Josefina Cruz. “I want to see Machu Picchu with my own eyes.”

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Travelling with Singapore Airlines to review their Book The Cook in flight menu, I made a short video feature exposing the mind-boggling complexities and costs of delivering meals in mid air.

Moreover, it covers how that becomes further complicated by choosing the meal before departure.

The video appeared in The New Zealand Herald online with an article on the economic forces that have created air travel’s distinctive cuisine, and the $40,000 olive.

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Hungry? We follow the remarkable journey taken by a @singaporeair airline meal, from runway kitchen to plane tray-table. Watch the whole thing online @nzherald . . . . #airlines #catering #howto #flying #business #airport #travel #fly #aviation #pilot

A post shared by Herald Travel (@nzhtravel) on Feb 17, 2020 at 5:43pm PST

A video essay looking at the surprising and unpredicted effects of our virual worlds on nature.

I worked with DOC and the Leave No Trace New Zealand to explore the data and come up with a 21st Century Guide to the Great outdoors published in the New Zealand Herald.

Winner of The TreadRight Foundation Award for promoting environmentally, socially, culturally and/or economically sustainable travel

Judge Louise Southerden said: “This was the standout piece in this category, a clear and deserving winner. It’s creative, it’s current – through its use of video as well as the written word – the visuals are beautiful (both images and graphics) and it’s fun to watch.”

“The facts and figures make it newsworthy, and the practical tips are made accessible by being presented in video form. Congratulations on a great piece of sustainable travel journalism.”