Each week in Sunday Travel, we check out some of the latest happenings from Aotearoa and beyond to inspire your next adventure.
From bungy jumps to Bag End, the TIA has seen a lot in 70 years.
TIA turns 70
The Tourism Industry Aotearoa celebrates 70 years this week. Since popping up on December 23, 1953 as the New Zealand Travel and Holiday Association, the TIA has been promoting holidays in New Zealand and representing Kiwi tourism businesses for the past seven decades. In that time they’ve seen the arrival of bungy jumping and Hobbits, and the ups and downs of many a tourism trend. More recently, they’ve been promoting the Tiaki guardian promise to inbound visitors and reconnecting Kiwis with the spirit of manaakitanga.
The Arboria luminarium is coming to Christchurch for the World Buskers Festival.
Buskers Festival brings a blowup cathedral to Christchurch
The annual World Buskers Festival 2024 has announced it will be back in the centre of Christchurch for a 31st year. It’ll be hard to ignore the new home of the festival, which returns to Cathedral Square in January 19-28.
As well as performers from as far afield as Uruguay and Korea, the city will host an enormous, 1000sq m inflatable structure called Arborialis Luminiarium.
From the streets to theatre seats, the festival also will be taking place at the Bread & Circus gala at The Isaac Theatre Royal and a Buskers’ Comedy Club. (Though ticketed, indoor performances may be stretching the definition of “busking”.)
Also not to be missed is the Silent Disco Walking Tour, which is equally enjoyable to witness as it is participate in.
The Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series is dropping by Auckland at last, for the series finals.
Second attempt at Auckland’s high-dive competition
The Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series in Auckland had the carpet pulled from beneath it after the November dates were canned by a water safety rāhui on Waitematā Harbour. Fortunately the divers have lined up for a new date: Sunday, January 28.
Fresh from the old Mostar Bridge in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the sport arrives next month for the world finals and its New Zealand debut. It will take place on the ASB harbourfront, where 24 hopefuls will leap at the chance to claim the King Kahekili trophies.
It’s been four years since the Southern Ocean Lodge was destroyed by the Kangaroo Island bushfires, and new constructions have risen from the ashes.
Sited on the limestone cliffs of South Australia and the flagship luxury resort of Baillie Lodges, the new lodge is as high-end as they come, at AU$3400 ($3664) per night. It is also the sister property to New Zealand’s Huka Lodge.
Taking inspiration from the rebound of the island’s fragile ecosystem, the lodge will not only cater to up to 42 guests but will also feature 45,000 biodiverse native plants that have been reintroduced to the natural wild border of the resort.
