The independent newszine for the modern ecotraveller.

New Zealand travel tips and information (from Evan Bloomfield)

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>=================== Under the bonnet

Here's another month gone and KiwiNewZ has had lots of work under the hood. Those of you who have visited the KiwiNewZ collection recently may notice a new look to progressively more pages, a special event page for the Gold Rush Queenstown Hill Climb, our brand new NZ discussion forum and the re instatement of our hugely popular competition to guess when snow will fall on the trees in CoronetCam.

And what's around the corner in Cam World? To see our brand new Cam Central page then click here! Let me know what you think!

>=================== What does kia ora mean?

We survive on your feedback, compliments complaints and queries. Honest.

Here's one from Calvin all the way from Houston, Texas .... "Please forgive my ignorance, but what does Kia Ora mean?".

Now this is one of my more common questions from the overseas folk. So I've been meaning to do it for ages and ages and now its done .... a short list of commonly used maori phrases with their meanings.

Just for the record kia ora means hello or in NZ speak gidday. The young ones tend to say "kia ora bro" and the old ones tend to say "kia ora" and give you a hongi. Now work that one out! In fact the first non New Zealander to email me with the correct meaning of hongi will win a Free Kiwi Keyring.

>=================== Send a FREE message anywhere in the world.

Don't you just love FreePhone numbers? You know the ones which start with 0800 ( or 0508 as Clear keep telling us ) that you dial with gay abandon! When they work from your mobile then you really know these people really want your business.

Well then this is the web page for you! From this amazingly simple page you can send a short text message to anyone with a GSM phone anywhere in the world .... for FREE. Yeaaaaah we looove that. Go on try it out. It really works!

MTN - Internet Short Message Service ( SMS ) - http://www.mtn.co.za/sms/

>=================== Silverstone Queenstown Gold Rush Hill Climb

The petrol heads are revving up their V8's and the rally drivers are ringing out their rotaries ..... whatever your medicine if you like speed on wheels you better be in the Cardrona Valley this Easter weekend.

Monster Tajima, Rod Millen, Stig Blomquist, Possum Bourne ... their all going to be there flinging their tightly tuned automobiles up the Waiorau Snow Farm access road. No asphalt for these boys we are talking dirt roads and high speed slides.

What? Your going to the beach for Easter! Never mind, make sure you take your laptop and you can check out the action on our special GoldCam set up just for the event. We will have photos of the finish area from 30 March with hourly updates on race days;

http://www.KiwiNewZ.com/html/goldrush.htm

>=================== Kakapo chicks caught on camera

Well those of you who are XTRA "members" and receive Ian Scherger's excellent emails will already know about this video footage of Kakapo chicks. Thanks Ian for the lead!

The Department of Conservation has a major campaign underway fighting for the survival of this cuter than all flightless green native parrot. Now these dudes are pretty special .... one of the world's most critically endangered birds in fact.

This year the Kakapo were moved from their island sanctuary of Codfish Island to the far south of Stewart Island - Port Pegasus for those of you with a map - to allow a rat poisoning campaign to be undertaken ( one Kakapo got missed but that's a different story ). They have just been moved back to Codfish Island ( doing a lot of flying around for a flightless bird! ) after a brilliant breeding season. Four healthy chicks and seven fertile eggs with total numbers of Kakapo now reaching 60 for the first time in 60 years. Go the Kakapo.

http://www.doc.govt.nz/cons/native/kakavid.htm

>=================== Fat Tyre Festival

Grape to Grape, Gravity X, Lake Jump ... what are we talking about? Well these are all events in another Easter Event the Fat Tyre Festival ...... and if you haven't worked it out yet it's mountain bikes.

Over the handle bars, jump the ditch and lower your seat. A full on celebration of all things two wheeled, pushed by pedal and oh yes ..... with fat tyres. And new this year is a downhill down the access road that the entrants in the Queenstown Gold Rush are going up hill. Now things are getting interesting!

>=================== New Zealand Discussion Forum

We have been busy behind the scenes at KiwiNewZ and one of our new projects is the New Zealand Discussion Forum. You can post new messages or contribute to an existing thread.

Pop on over to leave a few tales about a recent trip, ask for some hints on traversing the length and breadth of Aotearoa or update us all on a special event in your area.

http://www.KiwiNewZ.com/wwwboard/nzforum.html

>=================== Catlins Coastal Link

Fancy a spin around the Catlins Coast? Want to watch a yellow eyed penguin waddle up the beach. Like to frolic in the sand with a New Zealand Sea Lion? How about wading with a Hector Dolphin? Explore the wildlife wonderland of the Catlins Coast and you could find yourself doing all three in a day! Fab farmstays and Stewart Island options. Email us now for further information.

>=================== Win a Free Weekend in Queenstown

Now this was huge last year! In front of our CoronetCam shot we have a lovely line of tall trees which every so often in winter get snowed on! Cool. Especially cool because that usually means we got dumped on and the peak is going off!

So if you would like to win a weekend in a luxury apartment in Queenstown then just head on over to our entry page and guess away.

>=================== Back Issues

Last month we talked about;
Te Awamutu's famous family
A beast of an adventure race
Like to work on a NZ ski field this winter?
Travel Tips
How to name a Hump?

Click here to go to the index for our previous issues online.

>=================== That's all folks

Thanks for joining us and see ya next month. Remember we live on feedback, suggestions, requests, comments etc. We try to answer every one personally. Just email us.

This newszine is assembled from our own observations and reports from others and while every effort is made to get it right we can not attest to the accuracy or otherwise. Happy tripping. If you like what you read please forward this on to your friends ( reduce, re use, re cycle ). If you are reading someone else's and you like what we offer, please subscribe! It's easy and free. Just click here.

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Evan and Jane Bloomfield
Queenstown
AOTEAROA
fx +64 3 442 8342
E-mail: KIAora@KiwiNewZ.com