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Aurora Expeditions Freezes the Aussie Dollar

Expedition cruise company, Aurora Expeditions, has put a freeze on exchange rates for all of their upcoming voyages to Antarctica this 2013/14 season. Those that book their Antarctic cruise before 14 June 2013, Aurora Expeditions will lock in an exchange rate of AUD1:USD1 across all departures. With the Australian-dollar reaching an 11-month low last week, […]

Tall Ship Journey aboard Lord Nelson

Tall Ship Journey aboard Lord Nelson

Australians rarely get the opportunity to recreate the journeys of early sailing pioneers who followed in the wake of Captain James Cook to these shore. Here is that chance as the 55-metre tall ship The Lord Nelson is sailing around the world arriving in Australian waters in August 2013. Join a tall ship voyage from […]

Struth! Uranium tailplane a weighty problem

Struth! Uranium tailplane a weighty problem

The first 747-100s carried depleted uranium in their tails IN his continuing search for the more weird, wacky and wondrous in the world of travel, David Ellis says not many of us knew it, but we used to fly around the world in aircraft whose tailplanes carried big quantities of depleted uranium (DU). Because bizarrely […]

LEGO Titanic

LEGO Titanic

Scott Fowler of Kirkland, Washington spent eight months building this Lego Titanic. The 35 year old father-of -2 built 7’4″ inch sections to construct this 22′ LEGO creation. It contains more than 250,000 pieces and cost Fowler more than $15,000 to build using specifications and diagrams he found on the Internet. “I wanted to build […]

Somerset Maugham Steams into Samoa

Somerset Maugham Steams into Samoa

  GETTING HOOKED ON A SAMOA LEGEND David Ellis   IT’S by no means the wettest place in the world, but a visit there in 1920 convinced English author Somerset Maugham it was certainly one of them – so much so that when he penned one of his most famous short stories about the characters […]

Somerset Maugham Steams into Samoa

Somerset Maugham Steams into Samoa

GETTING HOOKED ON A SAMOA LEGEND David Ellis IT’S by no means the wettest place in the world, but a visit there in 1920 convinced English author Somerset Maugham it was certainly one of them – so much so that when he penned one of his most famous short stories about the characters he encountered […]

Struth! No such thing as a stupid question. Maybe.

Struth! No such thing as a stupid question. Maybe.

Wales – definitely open in winter (wales.com) IN his continuing search for the more weird, wacky and wondrous in the world of travel, David Ellis says travel agents get used to fielding some pretty oddball questions, and a recent survey amongst agents brought these pearlers to light: Are there any lakes in England’s Lakes District? […]

Struth! Family irate with Alex Cross

Struth! Family irate with Alex Cross

 Movie still from the ‘violent’ crime thriller “Alex Cross” IN his continuing search for the more weird, wacky and wondrous in the world of travel, David Ellis says a flight from Denver to Baltimore in the United States was diverted to Chicago earlier this month after just an hour in flight, because a family complained […]

COMPANY’S GOT HISTORY ALL BOTTLED UP

COMPANY’S GOT HISTORY ALL BOTTLED UP

CHEW over history with this and acold-weather’s lamb, pork or veal casserole. Wc20May13 David Ellis RIDDOCH Coonawarra’s a company one could easily write a fascinating book or three about, beginning with Scottish-born pioneer John Riddoch who rode the wool boom of the 1860s, and 30 years later planted Coonawarra’s first wine grapes in 1891. Along […]

Travel industry braces as Aussie dollar plunges

Travel industry braces as Aussie dollar plunges

by Peter Needham source: ozforex.com The sharp fall in the value of the Australian dollar last week will affect tourism, but the extent will depend on trends over a longer period. The currency dipped sharply and slumped below parity with the US dollar. It has now been below parity for a week. It slid to […]