Incas and choirboys top list

By JIM EAGLES

So, which places do New Zealanders most want to see before they die? The overwhelming favourite - to judge from responses to the Travel Herald draw for copies of "1000 Places To See Before You Die" - is Christmas in Vienna.

That view was presumably influenced by the tempting description, drawn from the book, of a city "white with snow, adorned with traditional decorations, lined with stalls selling festive goodies and carols sung by the Vienna Boys' Choir".

But as well as the huge numbers who want to go there specifically for Christmas, many want to visit there at any time of the year, making the beautiful Austrian capital the place more New Zealanders dream about than anywhere else.

Next in order were:

2. Ancient Egypt The majestic remains of the extraordinary civilisation the Egyptians built in the valley of the River Nile 5000 years ago - the pyramids and the sphinx, Karnak and the Valley of the Kings - clearly retain their fascination to present generations. Indeed, travel agents say bookings for Egypt are on the rise.

3. Tea at the Ritz The epitome of the old custom of afternoon tea, with its arcane ritual and luscious pastries, is obviously enormously appealing. If you add in all the other sights in London readers want to see before they die - Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey and Westminster Cathedral, Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus and the London Eye - London is close behind Vienna as the city we most want to visit.

4. Machu Picchu The lost capital of the Incas, lying in the mountains of Peru, is far and away the most popular place in South America to visit. Many even want to battle oxygen starvation by struggling up the Inca trail to get there.

5. Taj Mahal When the Emperor of India Shah Jahan built this magnificent white marble memorial to his favourite wife he followed a Persian design but the result was unique. Some 400 years later it is by far the best-known site in the world's most populous country.

6. New York In sharp contrast to the remains of ancient civilisations which dominate this list is New York, with its Statue of Liberty and the Empire State building. The Big Apple embodies the best and the worst of the western capitalist society of which it is the hub.

7. Great Wall of China The enormous structure of the Great Wall was built to keep out the barbarians, though it evidently failed to do the job. It is a little ironic, surely, that today the remains of the wall are the major attraction drawing new hordes of barbarians to the Middle Kingdom.

8. Delphi The well-preserved ruins of the temple built to house the most famous oracle of the ancient world at Delphi appear to be more compelling today than the ruins of Olympus, where the ancient games were held, or the Parthenon, standing majestically above the chaos of Athens.

9. Antarctica The vast, empty spaces of Antarctica, with its penguins and seals, icebergs and glaciers, not to mention the reminders of explorers such as Scott and Shackleton, are exercising an increasing fascination in our hectic, crowded society.

10. African wildlife No one place in Africa had huge support but if you add together those wanting to go on a safari with others yearning to visit game reserves such as Okavango, Serengeti Plains, Kruger Park and Ngorongoro Crater it is obvious that huge numbers of New Zealanders want to see lions and leopards, elephants and elands in the wild before they die.

11. Rome The eternal city, with its mix of ruins, magnificent art, superb churches and the Vatican City, is still at the heart of western civilisation.

12. Paris The French capital's appeal rests less on ancient ruins than on its unique mixture of architecture, ranging from the Eiffel Tower to Notre Dame, food, nightlife and art, especially that on display at the Louvre.

The choices are, however, extremely widely spread and that top 12 between them represent only about a third of the places people yearn to see.

It is clear from the overall response that Europe is still the place most New Zealanders dream of. Close to half of those who wrote in want to go somewhere in Europe.

A further 20 per cent opt for the Americas, and most of the rest are divided mainly between the Middle East, Asia and Australasia.

The most popular country to visit is Britain, mainly places in England, and if you take the British Isles as a whole, the dominance is even greater.

Apart from tea at the Ritz the rather livelier traditions of Hogmanay in Edinburgh or, across the Irish Sea, St Patrick's Day in Dublin also have quite a following.

History is a powerful drawcard in places such as Hadrian's Wall, the ancient spa town of Bath, Edinburgh Castle and its military tattoo, York Minster, Stonehenge, Windsor Castle and countless landmarks in London.

But lots of people also want to see legendary beauty spots such as the Lake District, Shropshire, Sissinghurst Gardens in Kent, the Chelsea Flower Show, the Highlands, the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland or Connemara in the Republic of Ireland.

After the British Isles the most popular countries in Europe - apart from Christmas in Vienna - are Italy and France.

The ancient splendours of Rome, Florence and Venice and the widely publicised beauty of Tuscany are the main factors that make Italy the top choice in mainland Europe.

In France, as well as the widespread longing for Paris, is considerable interest in the countryside of the South of France, the Palace of Versailles and the chateaux of the Loire Valley.

Other European attractions to rate a few mentions are the spa at Baden-Baden in Germany, the magnificent Czech capital of Prague, Norway with its fiords and the midnight sun, and the casinos of Monaco and Monte Carlo.

Interestingly, the most European part of Russia, St Petersburg, was the only part of the tsar's old domain to rate more than one mention and it almost made it into our top 12.

Outside Europe, most Kiwis hanker after the US. In addition to the dynamism of New York, the most popular places are the dramatic landscapes of the Grand Canyon, the icy wastes of Alaska - both of which almost made it into our top 12 - the hype of Disneyland and the music of New Orleans and Nashville.

There wasn't a lot of enthusiasm for Canada, to the north, or Central America, to the immediate south.

But the level of interest in Inca ruins, the magnificent Iguazu Falls and the unique wildlife on the Galapagos islands, underlined South America becoming an increasingly popular destination.

In the Middle East, a few people wanted to visit Jerusalem, which is sacred to three of the world's biggest religions, or the ancient stone city of Petra, in the deserts of Jordan, but Egypt was the overwhelming favourite.

Similarly, in Asia, the Taj Mahal and the Great Wall of China were about all anyone mentioned.

Quite a few wanted to see one of the great waterfalls of the world but that was divided between the Iguazu and Angel Falls in South America, the Niagara Falls in North America and the Victoria Falls in Africa.

Several golfers are keen on trying the most famous golf course in the world, St Andrews in Scotland, or arguably the most beautiful, Ballybunion in Ireland, or perhaps the best known in the US, Pebble Beach.

Closer to home, a few readers dream of going to Australia, mainly to see Outback sites such as Kakadu and Uluru.

And some yearn to see parts of New Zealand, particularly the southern delights of Queenstown, Mt Cook, Fiordland and Stewart Island.