Corinna's entry just the ticket for prize

Devonport resident Corinna Friebel has won the Herald Travel section's competition for a $13,000 luxury holiday for two in Hong Kong.

The contest was organised to celebrate Cathay Pacific Airway's 30th birthday in New Zealand and attracted an estimated 10,000 entries.

Cathay Pacific's New Zealand manager David Figgins drew Friebel's envelope out of the pile and fortunately she had answered the two questions correctly: the war-surplus DC3 with which Cathay was launched in 1945 was nicknamed Betsy and Hong Kong's most famous viewing point is Victoria Peak.

Her reaction to the news of her win was one of disbelief.

"This is a joke. I've never won anything in my life. I don't believe it. This is incredible."

In fact she rang the Herald back to check the call was not just some friend playing a trick.

A psychotherapist, who migrated to New Zealand from Germany 17 years ago, she travels to Europe every few years to catch up with family "and because I love travel".

Friebel said winning the trip to Hong Kong was particularly special because "I work with a lot of clients from China.

"I have already booked a flight to Germany later this year to go to my mother's 80th birthday and I planned for a stopover in Hong Kong for the first time so I can see where my clients come from.

"Winning this means I can take my partner there with me. It is wonderful news."

Her prize includes:

* Two return tickets to Hong Kong, flying Cathay Pacific's business class, with an award-winning food and beverage service and a seat which flattens out into a 1.9m bed with its own cocoon.
* Four nights in club floor rooms at the five-star Langham Hotel in the heart of the Kowloon shopping district.
* Tours of Hong Kong and hotel-airport transfers arranged by Hong Kong Tourism Board.