Your New Zealand experience starts here

Boasting breathtaking natural landscapes from our favourites movies, New Zealand is a culturally-rich metropolis with much to discover. Walk along its unspoiled beaches, indulge in succulent seafood with a glass of New Zealand wine or immerse yourself in Maori culture, you’re guaranteed to enjoy a full and rewarding Kiwi experience.

Travelling to New Zealand just got easier. From October 2018, Air New Zealand will be operating and additional flight that departs Singapore at 06.40 pm and reaches Auckland the following day at 9:90am.

This new service will allow Indonesians to connect easily from Indonesia to Singapore and for them to commerce their journey within the North Island on the same day or provides the choice to connect easily on our domestic flights to the South Island.

Fly with the Award Winning airline and Be rewarded

Air New Zealand is a member of Star Alliance, the world’s largest airline alliance. It is also rated as the Airline of the Year for 5 consecutive years by AilineRatings.com.

Be rewarded with a Changi Transit Reward valued at S$20 to offset your shopping during your transit at Changi Airport when you travel on Air New Zealand.

Air New Zealand operates the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner from Singapore to Auckland and brings premium air travel to the next level. Featuring larger windows, you can enjoy spectacular aerial views on your flight and if you wish to take a nap, just dim the adjustable tint and enjoy a peaceful zone (no more shutters!). An advanced air purification system delivers cleaner, healthier air throughout the flight, you’ll no longer feel exhausted but be refreshed and ready for an adventure.

Air New Zealand inflight entertainment amenities include a 9” HD touch screen with a Seat Chat feature that allows passengers to message and chat with friends and family members onboard their flight, without leaving their seat.

City of adventures

As one of New Zealand’s most populous cities. Auckland is an all-inclusive destination in itself. Its activities and attractions stretch from the city to it beaches and rainforests.

Put sky Tower at the top of your to-do list when you are in Auckland’s central business district .the 328m high tower is New Zealand’s tallest man-made structure and it is from here that you will get the best views of Auckland. To get to the viewing platforms, rider up in a glass-fronted elevator, if you are brave enough, don’t stop there. Go for a Sky Walk, where you will inch along a narrow walkway around the ledge of the Sky Tower, 192m from the ground.

Gardens and Springs in Christchurch

There is no better place to celebrate the dawn of spring than in Christchurch – “The Garden City” where you will be greeted by fresh blossoms, bluebells and daffodils aplenty on the Avon River.

Don’t miss the picturesque Christchurch Botanic Gardens in its full picture-perfect glory and explore more than 10 different flourishing gardens on its grounds; or immerse in a field of a million cherry daffodils at the Otahuna Lodge.

You can take a leisurely stroll on forest trails, bask in the invigoratingly fresh alpine air and soak in the mineral goodness of the therapeutic hot sulphur pools.

Aoraki Mount Cook National Park – Home of the Highest Mountains

Set against a stunning backdrop of Aoraki (Mount Cook), the highest peak in New Zealand, Lake Pukaki is situated on the brinks of the great mountain’s namesake national park and along the northern edge of the Mackenzie Basin.

To take in the panoramas in the lap of luxury and comfort, stay at the historic Hermitage Hotel where you can dine-dine and enjoy award winning fish and game dishes.

Or rough it out by catching your own brown and rainbow trout dinner at the gorgeous lakes and rivers of the basin.

There are also fresh salmon in the city, fast-flowing water that sweeps down the mountains to the Mount Cook. Salmon Alpine farm near Lake Tekapo.

'Dark Tourist' A journey through unorthodox holiday spots

Is Netflix’s new travel-documentary series Dark Tourist edgy entertainment or does it take an irreverent view of others’ misery and cultural traditions?

HOSTED by David Farrier, a New Zealand journalist who also co-directed 2016’s intriguing documentary Tickled (which pulled surprising depth out of the world of competitive tickling), Dark Tourist focuses on the trend of dark tourism, in which vacationers visit unorthodox spots for pleasure — or pleasure through pain, in some cases.

The eight-part series takes Farrier around the world — America, Japan, Africa, Europe, “the Stans” and to Southeast Asia including Indonesia (Toraja in South Sulawesi to be exact). They take a fish-out-of-water perspective that similar series have done before. Whether they do so successfully varies in each episode.

Though Farrier manages to balance his droll sense of humor (often very funny in its ability to be improbably subtle and confrontational toward interview subjects of skewed morality) with the more-conventional TV show host’s roundup of what’s going on on-screen (plenty of acceptable platitudes as the end credits arrive), there is no denying the “yikes-look-at-this-weird-person/habit/perspective” aspect that is supremely difficult to balance in shows such as these.

Shows such as Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations, which managed to be entertaining yet respectful to its surroundings, are not a given but a miracle.

This certainly has a lot to do with the catch of Dark Tourist, which exclusively presents Farrier in situations where sarcasm and drollery may feel like the only natural response, a part from outright hysteria.

And fair play to Farrier, who manages to mostly keep his cool throughout – but the show’s positioning of itself as showcasing these “dark” tourist spot means that more often than not, the catch is simple morbid curiosity.

When the background to this morbidity is the suffering of others it makes it difficult. This happens when he meets as assassin who worked for drug lord Pablo Escobar. The man is certainly an interesting psychological case, but it is difficult to embrace him at all, as he wallows almost in gleeful pride in his exploits – becoming a celebrity of sorts.

Witness the destination in the Japan episode. Here a guided tour takes Farrier and other curious minds to Fukushima, which of course is the Japanese prefecture that became famously radioactive after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami triggered meltdowns at a nearby nuclear plant.

Visually, it is a fascinating episode, with ghost towns and a sense of conspiracy and dread permeating through government offices and silent, haunting roads and dead shops and arcades. Its cinematic prowess is bested by the way the show also focuses on other tourists, as well as the native Japanese guide.

The former are made up of a mix of personalities, from social media fixated buddies who take what can arguably be considered impropriate selfies to those whose semi-jovial curiosity quickly turns to fear as their Geiger counter shows increasingly high-levels of radiation.

Along with the guide – a man who is at peace with the reality of the situation and his own spirituality – these glimpses of the people who engage this trend of “Dark Tourist” are the closest the series gets to true revelations.

As in the final episode, which introduces Russ McKamey, an American who runs the McKamey Manor, a free-to-visit haunted house or “extreme haunt”, in his own San Diego property.

McKamey charges nothing except dog food for his pets .how someone who is seemingly so rational finds his deepest enjoyment in terrifying people in such extreme ways – they are essentially tortured willingly, both psychologically and physically, through challenges that could run for eight hours and include drowning, hair cutting, forced feeding and more – is fascinating.

Thought it never gets as deep as it could (more perspective from the people who sigh up for this would have been appreciated), it presents the series with something more than visual feasts.

A fellow “Dark Tourist” who goes with Farrier through “the Stans” (which include Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan) is another individual who it would have been interesting to get to know deeper, a family man who travels to places like warzones to get his thrills, and is literally laughing as he gets deeper into a radiation zone.

The other elements of it are less investigative and more curiosity-driven making for more predictable spectacles. Local viewers will take particular interest in his trip to Toraja, where he reacts to the tradition of keeping dead relatives at home, their bodies treated as if still alive, sometimes for years.

Farrier is visibly taken aback by the burial ceremony’s ritual sacrificing of animals (as a feast for the whole village), and for the most part tries to be as respectful as he can throughout the whole endeavor – even when he is given the chance to present money to a corpse that has been dug up by her family.

While entertaining, the show lacks a deeper focus. Theme-wise, it describes destinations that do not really connect, other than being in the same country Dark Tourist might need more time (meaning more seasons) to truly find itself.  For now, it is simply a Netflix show with a freak factor to rope people in. it is definitely watchable, but not with much value to it.

Sherpa shortage takes a toll on Everest

#Office view: Sherpa guide Ang Tshering Lama poses during an interview at Everest base camp, some 140 km northeast of Kathmandu, Nepal, on April 23. The Everest industry is suffering from a dangerous shortage of its most important resources experienced Sherpa Guides.

The Everest industry is suffering from a dangerous shortage of its most important resource: experienced Sherpa guides.

Ethnic Sherpas from the valleys around Everest have become synonymous with high altitude climbing.

With their unique ability to work in a low-oxygen, high altitude atmosphere, they are the backbone of the industry, hauling clients and equipment to the top of the 8,848-metre (29,029-foot) mountain.

The number of Everest climbers has more than doubled in two decades, however, and the Sherpa supply has not kept pace. Raw recruits are now being used to reach the top and it has already taken a toll.

Dawa Sange Sherpa, 20, summited Mount Everest last year—a first for him and the climber he was with.

On the way down, the cold, lack of oxygen and exhaustion took hold. The pair collapsed just below the summit and were found hours later, barely alive.

"My friend said to me, 'He's done'. But I found a small pulse in him," said guide Ang Tshering Lama, who found Sange.

Everest victim

Lama dragged the unconscious Sange back down the mountain while others helped his client.

Both had severe frostbite. Sange lost all of his fingers, spelling the end of his short career on Everest.

#The number of Everest climbers has more than doubled in two decades but the S..

Sange was not meant to be guiding that year. He was planned to be carrying equipment up the mountain, a job many young Sherpa do before graduating to become guide.

"I was in the second team, in which untrained Sherpa usually carry the equipment and food from the base camp to camp two, three and four," Sange said.

But his employer, Seven Summit Treks, the largest Nepal-based expedition operator, had more than 60 clients on Everest and needed someone to take a paying climber to the top.

Head of Seven Summit Treks Mingma Sherpa said Sange was ready to be a guide and had previously summited Everest. Sange said he had not.

Nine other Sherpa from Seven Summit Treks were rescued on Everest that year, but Mingma denied there were any problems.

"A Sherpa can summit five times, eight times but sometimes he gets a problem. That's the body," he said.

#Mountaineers walk from Camp 3 to Camp 4 as they push for the summit of Mount ...

With the climbing season barely started, so far this year at least four Sherpas from Seven Summit Treks have already sustained frostbite, according to base camp sources.

'Risky business'

No qualifications are needed to work on Everest. Some expedition operators require staff to do one of two short courses for mountain workers. Others do not.

Mingma dismissed the Nepal Mountaineering Association courses as worthless, saying everything could be learned on the mountain.

"My Sherpa don't have any training with NMA. NMA training for us is not enough, we should do our own training on the mountain," he said.

Dawa Steven Sherpa of Asian Trekking requires all staff to have done the NMA course. He said that budget expedition operators hire inexperienced Sherpa to cut costs.

#Summit route on Mount Everest. The Everest industry is suffering from a dangerous...

"As long as his name is Sherpa," he quipped of the recruitment criteria.

Experienced Sherpa guides can make up to $10,000 in the April to May climbing season, more than 14 times Nepal's average annual income. The lowest paid will barely scrape together $1,000 for two months' risky work.

"It's the fault of the clients as well if they just close their eyes and go cheap," said Lama, who rescued Sange.

Seven Summit Treks—which charges about $20,000 to climb Everest, less than a third of other operators—blames rivals for the shortage, accusing them of not investing in the next generation of Sherpa guides.

"They take only experienced Sherpas. They don't want to spend extra money to train new Sherpas," Mingma said.

Phurba Tashi Sherpa, head Sherpa with the Himalayan Experience company, who has summited Everest 21 times, said it was becoming more difficult to find experienced Sherpa for his team.

#A climber walks through base camp below Everest, which is suffering from a...

dangerous shortage of its most important resource: experienced Sherpa guides

"The young Sherpa are very strong and they think they can do everything, but actually they can't. The older Sherpa go slow and steady," he said.

Sherpa have been helping Everest climbers since the first British teams set their sights on the summit in the 1920s.

Their unique physiology, adapted over thousands of years of living at high altitudes, has made them essential since. A recent British study found that Sherpas use oxygen more efficiently than lowlanders.

But climbing Sherpa have arguably become a victim of their own success, and the community is now at a generational turning point.

Many experienced Sherpa who started working for the first commercial expeditions in the 1990s are retiring. Others have left Nepal for rival mountaineering countries buoyed by their reputation for being strong and dedicated.

They have earned enough money to educate their children in Kathmandu, or even in India and the United States.

#Tents at Everest base camp. No qualifications are needed to work on ...

the mountain and although some expedition operators require staff to do a short course for mountain workers, others do not

"They are educated so they can find other jobs," said Kami Rita Sherpa, who has been guiding on Everest since 1994 and admits he would never allow his son to work in such a "risky business".

"If the old climbing guides don't bring their kids into this sector, the number of climbing Sherpas will definitely decline," he continued.

"Those from the next generation won't join this field."