Millenium meltdown

David Bowie won't sing and millennium shows have fallen over. Now VICTORIA BARTLE can't find anyone doing anything exciting on the big night.

I have lost count of how many people I've asked, "So what are you doing on New Year's Eve?" It is astonishing how many New Zealanders are doing pretty much what they do every New Year's Eve - and how many scorn the millennium hype, using expressions like "overrated," "just another New Year" and "pressure, pressure!"

But plenty is on offer for those who want to make the effort, if they can find child-minders and are happy not to drink and drive, and if they can afford the expense.

The tourism meccas of this country and beyond are going to huge efforts to lure locals and overseas visitors alike and to promote themselves in marking the millennium.

But I have struggled to find anyone who has remarkable, enviable and memorable plans for the Big Night.

I'm undoubtedly leaving myself wide open for indignant letters from those who are indeed planning to attend one of the millennium parties, at one of the venues, while wearing that special dress or shirt, and intend being among the first to see the most talked-about sunrise of the century.

Many of New Zealand's celebrities are refusing to reveal their plans for the Big Night/Dawn because small-time paparazzi would refuse to allow them to do it in private. Those happy to talk are planning to be about as low-key as we unknowns.

Yet since early this year millennium stories and press releases have flooded the Herald's travel desk, all claiming they want to tell the world about the best place to be on December 31, 1999.

Many boast that their event/accommodations/venues have been completely booked by the rich and famous for the biggest bash in 1000 years - but, they hastily assure us, "there's still time ... but hurry!"

The number of millennium special holidays offered has been enormous. Even the number of ships offering "fabulous, memorable millennium cruises" is enough to sink ... well, even the biggest ship.

So why can I not find one extravagant soul who intends being somewhere fabulously exotic? Someone who has chosen the arrival of the Year 2000 to set off on their trip of a lifetime, someone who has given in to the pressure? Even an ordinary bloke would do. One who is so fed up with the hype, he's said to his beloved, "To hell with it, Pet. We're going to find a quiet island with no mountains for seeking out the first light of the New Dawn, and we'll be asleep by midnight."

Even that would be vaguely romantic - nay, enviable - so long as there was a nice dinner and a bottle of wine thrown in before bedtime.

Before you think, "Well, you obviously don't get out much, Love," I can honestly say I have been poking my nose into the New Year plans of many people for many months. Some are broke, some are rolling in it, some are down-to-earth family folk. And I have even questioned those with a reputation for being in the right place at the right time and always in the right frock. Those are the people who "do" events and go places as much to boast about them afterwards as to experience them.

Well, I cannot stall any longer. The deadline has more than loomed. I will concede there must surely be a lot of people preparing to board planes and ships and part with thousands of dollars in the process of reaching the "dream" destination at which they will see in the millennium, - but clearly, my shoulders have never even brushed lightly, let alone rubbed, with theirs.

The vast majority of Kiwis who wanted "to do what we always do" certainly had their wits about them, making sure they booked their favourite campsites, holiday homes or rental caravans early this year.

Favourite holiday spots such as Waiheke Island have been "totally inundated" almost since the beginning of the year with phone calls from intending holidaymakers.

Visitors' information centres have found that locals who often rent out their homes during peak holiday periods have opted not to join the melee of revellers elsewhere. Instead, they're staying home. Others are being urged not to take advantage of a shortage of holiday rentals by asking exorbitant rates. Some information centres have noted a healthy increase in the number of inquiries about renting homes at places like Coromandel, the Bay of Islands and Waiheke Island - inquiries which outnumber the homes available.

While most summer "tourists" are coming from within New Zealand, rental agencies have noticed an increase in the number of international visitors trying to find accommodation for the New Year period. All have probably found "conditions apply" in some communities, where rental agencies are enforcing a 14-day minimum stay.

"It's a surefire way to weed out the people who want a place to rent just for two or three days so they can party heartily and leave town," said one rental agent.