Local travel on show

By CARROLL DU CHATEAU

The first useful thing about onHoliday, is that it reminds you now, while there is still time, to plan your summer holiday. Which, says editor Kate Coughlan, is the point of the publication. "People work too hard. They don't actually have time to plan meaningful holidays and exciting adventures."

The second useful thing about onHoliday is that 80 per cent of the time it is enticing you to go to places within reach - both physically and fiscally. This is local travel on show.

As usual, Coughlan, who also puts together the seriously successful New Zealand House & Garden, has hit the market on the button. Here we are, itching for a break but too chicken to head for anywhere within a million miles of Afghanistan (or New York, or London, or Paris) and along comes a travel magazine telling us all about the glories of holidaying at home - an idea that has been in the making for two years.

Our favourites were the two stories based around modular baches.

First there's the Andrew Patterson model with its corrugated-iron roof, open fireplace, rigged-up outside shower (which is not part of the design) and wall-wide whitney windows ($60,000 assembled in one day). But sadly, there's a catch. To get a bathroom you need the guest pavilion which is another $55K. Second is the much more stylish Pete Bossley Lockwood holiday home with its corrugated-iron walls which slide and fold aside to give a stunning view of the sea (prices vary according to materials used, location, freight costs).

Would they look so good if they weren't perched right on the edge of the beach or cliff? Probably not, but both baches would still be reasonably inexpensive and darned attractive with it.

Then there are the articles, which range through New Zealand, from such distinctly undiscovered holiday destinations as Twizel and Rangitata to the glorious Kaiiwi Lakes and Marlborough Sounds.

There is also plenty of practical information: how much it costs to buy sections and baches, where to stay, what to eat, what to do.