At first, I thought somebody had died and we'd stumbled into the place where the corpse was being embalmed...

At the height of the aviation chaos caused by the ash cloud, I commented to my wife, "It's going to be interesting to see the outcome of this ... "

One of the trickier decisions you face when you're on the road in a strange country is where to eat.

If you're looking for a cheap holiday in New Zealand then Auckland is the place to go.

Is the threat of a $200 instant fine going to deter the feckless minority of free campers?

I've just used one of the European budget airlines for the first time, and found it very good.

Whether you get fat and flabby while you're travelling rather depends what sort of trip you're on.

The first time I ever flew must have been about 1960 in a Grumman Widgeon amphibian, piloted by the famous Freddie Ladd.

If you want to know the best places to check out when you're visiting a foreign country you're often best advised to ask a tourist rather than a local.

I'm sure it's an embarrassing sign of old age and colonial cringe but one thing I do like to have when I'm on the road is a nice early morning cup of weak tea... well, two cups, really.

The first thing I do when I enter a new hotel room isn't to go straight to the window to check out the view, test-bounce the bed or look into the bathroom to see whether the toiletries are Molton Brown or Gilchrist & Soames.

Think of women's clothing and Iran and the unappealing image that springs to mind is probably the shapeless, black coverall of a traditional chador.

Cruise ships have been flocking to Auckland in recent months, reviving calls for the city to build a flash new terminal, preferably capable of catering for two ships at the same time.

Melbourne's Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs exhibition brings ancient Egypt closer to home.

Natural disasters have put the tourism sectors in Christchurch and Queensland on the back foot but the Aussies have already come out swinging with the cleverly named "Nothing beats Queensland" campaign.

I've always felt that food was one of the great reasons to travel. But you'd have to say that until relatively recently it wasn't top of the list of reasons for visiting the South Pacific.

At Auckland International Airport I watched sympathetically as my young daughter wrestled with the dilemma of how to meet the needs of three young children within the limits of the aviation security rules.

If you've flown Air New Zealand and found yourself on the new Airbus A320, you'll have had the chance to use your mobile at 5000m, or to listen to your neighbour doing important business by phone.

So passengers are going to be able to make mobile phone calls on domestic flights on Air New Zealand's new A320s. Fantastic. Hurrah. Yippee. Not.

Hihi - otherwise known as stitchbirds - may well be New Zealand's most interesting birds.

After digesting both sides of the debate, Jim Eagles believes there should be a uniform set of rules governing freedom camping.

Checking your rental car for scratches before you depart on a journey can be tiring - but Alex Robertson has a solution.

You may have noticed that over the holiday period Air New Zealand finally took delivery of the first of its five Boeing 777-300ER aircraft.

Peter Calder takes a break from creature comforts - and city slickers.

There was mild celebration last year when the New Zealand and Spanish governments negotiated an agreement on working holiday visas.

I am starting to think that in this case we do need a national policy on freedom camping, so campers and locals know exactly what the rules are.

I've enjoyed some fantastic New Year's Eve festivities in years gone by, usually with family and friends, and mostly at the beach.

A survey of 502 Kiwis found that 42 per cent said they usually decided on their travel plans around this time of year.

If you fancy a bit of a break this Christmas but need to do it on the cheap, there are a few things you can do to help your money go further.

Rules are rules and carelessness is carelessness. But I can't help wishing that there would be some standardisation of enforcement.