Road Trip 2 – Bungieeeeeeeeeeeee!

Another month, another visitor and another road trip - just as well there’s just too many great things to do in New Zealand!

This time it was Chinh who came for a visit, our Southeast Asia connection. Visiting for a month and working from Christchurch while here. Normally he’s based in landlocked Siem Reap in Cambodia so having been deprived for so long is keen to get in as much surfing as possible while living within easy reach of the ocean - suits me fine being a keen surfer myself :)

Again we took the tried and tested extra long scenic route to Queenstown via the west coast...

First fun stop was Franz Josef to take in an awesome quad bike adventure with Across Country Quad Bikes. This was great fun and the most technical quad biking I’ve ever had the pleasure of doing. Following the ancient glacier pathway down river from Franz Josef glacier and muddy tracks through lush green rainforest there was lots of opportunity to try and throw up some mud and water over my passenger Chinh. But the truly white-knuckle part of the trip was when Chinh got to drive – he seemed to be a rock and tree magnet so was quickly relegated back to passenger status! I think the old “don’t look at what you want to avoid” rule taught to snowboarders was being applied to his riding style... oh look there’s a huge rock, better avoid that – oh – I’ve just driven over it!?


Next it was skydiving in Wanaka with Skydive Lake Wanaka – something to tick off on Chinh’s “to do before I die” list... Jumping out of a plane at 15,000 ft with a full minute of freefall before opening the chute was truly awesome – gives you plenty of time to get over the initial “what the @#$%!” reaction of exiting a plane at such a height, and get down to the serious business of enjoying the awesome experience of plummeting towards terra firma! Such a beautiful spot to jump out of a plane – the scenery is awesome with beautiful blue lakes below and snow capped mountains in the background (including the famous Mt Cook). Highly recommended!

I think it’s actually illegal for tourists to visit New Zealand and not visit the grown-ups playground known as Queenstown...

The famous Shotover Jet was our first treat in Queenstown – an incredible jet boat ride up and down the scenic Shotover River - missing the canyon walls by inches doing crazy manoeuvres, 360 degree spins and power slides. “The world's most exciting jet boat ride” - this is no idle boast!

Next was something a little less adrenaline inducing, but fun none the less - The Skyline Experience... Starting with the gondola - the easy way to get to see the great views over Queenstown without breaking in to a sweat by walking up under your own steam. Once at the top there’s a great activity for the whole family – the luge – addictive fun where you can race each other down the track. You’ll be sure to want a re-match or two! Next we delved in to the Maori cultural experience they have which is Kiwi Haka. Trying to volunteer my buddy for the role of chief of our tourist tribe backfired a little, but it was fun being called "Chief Gavin" for the duration of the experience. It’s an great way to learn a little about the indigenous peoples of Aotearoa. Being chief is hungry work so it was off to the try the buffet at the Skyline Restaurant... Amazing choice of food, fresh ingredients and very tasty! There's something for all tastes. It was great taking in the best view in Queenstown while enjoying our meal. We were also entertaining watching the bungy jumpers from our vantage point – including a few people who jumped naked!


Next was something a little more alternative to what most people get up to in Queenstown... gold fossicking. I had the opportunity to join Daniel while he was taking out two visitors on a trip out to his claim near Queenstown. He's got all the toys and expertise you need to find the gold including a dredge to work the rocky stream bed where all the juiciest nuggets are likely to be hiding. I had a lot of fun helping out and picked up some excellent tips - I'm now hooked!



We couldn’t leave Queenstown without having a go at one of the iconic AJ Hackett bungy jumps dotted around the town, so on the way out of town on our way back to Christchurch we stopped off at the Kawarau Bridge Bungy to give it a go... For some reason Chinh found the idea of a bungy scarier than throwing himself out of a plane?! And I’ve got to admit, his apprehension was a little contagious. After days of badgering him he finally relented to give it a go. He was quite nervous but respect – he didn’t dawdle jumping off the bridge once he had the big elastic band secured! I'm keen to try some of the other AJ Hackett bungy jumps now!

FYI: In answer to the woman’s voice in the background asking “why he’s doing it barefoot?”... I was wearing jandles (flip flops / thongs) which had been attached to the harness so I wouldn’t lose them.

Till next time - peace out,
Gav ;)

Scream on the new SAW extreme roller coaster at Thorpe Park, and the new YouGoDo SEO Rankings

This week sees the opening of the new SAW ride at Thorpe Park in the UK.

To quote Thorpe Park:

"FACE YOUR FEARS ON SAW - THE RIDE OPENING THIS SPRING AT THORPE PARK

The Wait is Over…

Be first in line to ride the world’s most terrifying rollercoaster and get down to the UK’s thrill capital, THORPE PARK, on 14th March 2009 for the hotly-anticipated official opening of SAW – The Ride.

The first ever horror movie themed coaster, SAW – The Ride is based on the hugely popular blood, gore and suspense based horror film franchise, ‘Saw’, and promises to torment and terrify all visitors.

Like the underlying plot of the Saw films, SAW – The Ride is designed to provide the ultimate test to all who dare ride it, placing them at the mercy of the film’s master manipulator ‘Jigsaw’ to endure a series of nerve-shredding challenges guaranteed to set pulses racing.

The biggest test of SAW – The Ride will be a formidable ‘beyond vertical’ drop of 100º from a height of 100ft, making it the steepest freefall drop in the world. Riders will also endure three death-defying inversions that will add another dimension to a whole new experience of adrenaline-fuelled fun for thrill seekers.

SAW - The Ride will be the Park’s fourth major rollercoaster, joining an already impressive portfolio of extreme ride experiences, including Stealth – Europe’s fastest rollercoaster, Colossus – the world’s first ten looping rollercoaster and Nemesis Inferno – the 4.5 ultimate G-force experience."

Sounds fun - Thorpe Park is of course on YouGoDo along with a host of the World's best theme parks, and the best things to do in the UK.

Here on YouGoDo we have recently revamped our Ranking engine to give you more of what you want! Our ranking engine has been improved to now show the activities you like most nearer the top. So when you go to the YouGoDo things to do search page it will show you the most popular activities over the past few weeks. Equally when looking at something specific it will show youn more of the most popular things to do - for example our top 10 cycling in spain or our top 10 water parks or our top 10 surfing activities.

Its not quite a simple a showing those clicked most, as the quality of the listing, its review ratings, etc are all taken into account by the sophisticated ranking engine, which is powered by 1,312,785.43 Carol Vordeman sized brains!

Hope you enjoy our new way of presenting you with the great activities and experiences available on http://www.yougodo.com/.

Cheers



Paul

You Are Here

We’ve been busy improving the free custom YouGoDo activity maps you can drop in to your own websites and blogs. You can now add a custom pin to the map to show your own location and give it a short description which is displayed when clicked.

This has been a requested feature a lot of activity operators, tourist information offices, hotels and other accommodation providers will find useful to show their location and local activities to their visitors.

Below is an example map showing the YouGoDo office in Christchurch, New Zealand (click on the x):

Click here to build your own free custom activity map.

We’re always looking at ways we can improve these maps so feel free to contact us if there’s anything you’d like to see added or (god forbid) you encounter a problem with them.

One feature we’re looking to add in the near future is the ability to show the exact location of activities when visitors zoom in to a certain level on the map, not just an overview of the activities available in each location.

If you’re using a YouGoDo activity map feel free to leave a comment on this blog post linking back to the page where it’s in use – we’re always excited to see where our maps are being used!

Here's a few of the maps we've recently spotted out there in the wild:

• Tourism Futures
• Cavallino Luxury Rental Penthouse Apartment
• Umpalazi Community & Wildlife Project
• Shaw Marketing Services

Skiing in Sierra Nevada – Spring in Spain

A great YouGoDo’y week here in Spain last week. Mountain Biking, Enduro Riding and Skiing – spring is in the air!

The kids were off school, and one of the advantages of them being in an International School here in Spain, is that the International and Spanish Schools have different half term holidays. So a great week to head up to the local ski slopes at Sierra Nevada, while most of the locals kids are at school.

Being so far south it is always a warm place to ski, and this year the conditions have been superb. The best snow in about 20 years, and certainly the best we have seen in the past five years (although that said this is probably down to the fact we planned the visit this year – we usually leave it too late and ski in April by which time the heat in Spain is rising and snow is tending to get a little slushy on the lower slopes!). Our youngest has also mastered the blues with confidence which opened up a host of new lifts and pistes – great fun. Sierra Nevada a great place to visit!

I’ve also started to get back into my Mountain Biking – and Mountain Biking in Spain is stunning . That said it’s fairly hilly!

Wanting to find some new routes with minimum effort I took out the KTM Enduro Motorcycle on Saturday – a great way of finding out “what’s up that route?, what’s down that track?, do those two tracks join?, where does that track bring me out?, how steep is that climb?, etc”. Enduro Riding in Spain is also stunning!

With the help of the KTM assisted recky we had a great 30km Sunday morning ride through the cork forests and crystal clear streams, simple and more technical, etc. All rounded off with a pint and some olives at the local finca – it’s taken three years but I’m finally really enjoying Olives!

Back on YouGoDo a host of new activities continue to rain down on us – wingsuit flying came to our attention last week.

I had a look into this further and came across this stunning wingsuite video from Norway! Anyone fancy giving it a try we have several options!

A few of our latest additions:

The Great Lake Hole In One Challenge one of our many things to do in New Zealand

Mekong River Cruises

Pedalling & Paella Cycling Trips in Southern Spain

Gator Farm - Learn how to handle an Alligator!

Create your own perfume at Galimard in Grasse, France – and be able to reorder your personal scent at any time in the future.

Arctic Harley - Harley Davidson Motorcycle Rentals and Tours from the World’s Northernmost Harley Dealer in Norway

Learn Bullfighting in Salamanca – more fun than serious, for you and the Bull!

Go Ape! in the UK – 21 great climbing and zip wire fun locations in the UK

Spring is in the air!

Warming Paul

Road Trip!

I'm always looking for an excuse to get out of the city so when my mate popped over for a week from the UK the first thing that popped in to my mind was - road trip!

Heading to the west coast from Christchurch we stopped off shortly before Arthur's Pass to have a play at cave stream. This is a wicked little spot when you can take a decent torch (and it's suggested a backup!) and walk / clamber through a cave carved out by a stream. It's a soggy experience but a lot of fun! Underground it takes about 40 mins against the flow of water from the streams exit to it's entrance, while a walk on terra firma above only takes about 5 mins but is quite boring by comparison (far too easy!).

Next stop was down the west coast to check out the glaciers of Fox Glacier and Franz Josef. It's amazing to see these huge masses of ice up close and see bits dropping off their faces as they slowly melt away. We waited patiently for a huge chuck to drop off, but had to give up in the end. That night we camped on Haast's rugged beach and provided a hearty supper for the local sandfly population.

It was off to Queenstown next via Wanaka. Queenstown is basically one big playground for grown-ups - there's so much fun to be had and crazy stuff to do! Of course, we had to partake in some of the crazy activities...

First off was white water sledging with Frogz - wicked fun to cool you off on a hot day! Forget sissy white water rafting - with Frogz you get up close and personal by playing in the white water on your own personal sledge. The friendly crew always had a close eye on us and encouraged us to try out different tricks in the white water - my favourite was bronco style riding of the sledge (sitting on top of it), though I didn't last too long in the rapids this way! There was also a huge jump from the cliffs at the side you can attempt if feeling brave - having lemming genes I couldn't get enough of this. Another great thing with the trip was the fact you get to do 2 trips down the river... the first is a warm-up, then by the second you're feeling comfortable and willing to try more stuff out in the rapids.


Next round of craziness was the Shotover Canyon Swing. I think I'm going to be doing this every time I go back to Queenstown! Did I mention I have lemming genes? Well, this crazy activity was made for me - I could do this one all day! Basically there's a big steel cable crossing a canyon and another cable connected to the mid-point which you get attached to the end of - it's then up to you to jump off a platform from the side of the canyon in exciting ways. There's some noticeable free fall before the slack starts to take in and you swing out of the drop. You pick up quite some speed as you can imagine - it's such a rush!!! You can't help but want to do it again, and again, and again... The amusing staff have dreamed up all sorts of amusing, fun and sadistic ways you can launch yourself off and in to the fresh air of the canyon - there's even a menu to choose from. For the guys - be sure "to pee with Mr. T" ;)

The last bit of fun we had in Queenstown was a Kawarau Jetboat ride - this is one the whole family will enjoy! The pilot ("skipper" just sounds too tame for a jetboat) skims the jetboat at high speed over the lake and down the rivers playfully heading straight for islands in the water, trees on the banks, etc. before turning away at the last moment. Definitely has you thinking "he has seen that island we're heading straight for at speed right?!". There's also the frequent high speed spins where he'll swing the boat around in a 360 degree spin on the spot - definitely my favourite bits! I couldn't get over how little water the jetboat needs to speed along on - it's quite a big boat and we were flying up and down rivers which I could have waded across with only getting my ankles wet!

We even made it in to the Lakes Weekly Bulletin (a local publication) while partying one night...


Back to reality... the drive home to Christchurch was left till the last minute in my typical fashion - my friend flying out back to the UK that night. I shouldn't have joked about it the day before, but the car did in fact break down in the middle of nowhere - I obviously jinxed us! Luckily we got towed back to Twizel where the mechanic pronounced the engine dead from the overheating I hadn't noticed. Who looks at the temperature gauge till it's too late right? Those things should come equipped with alarms and flashing strobe lighting! Luckily we hired a car off the mechanic and raced it back to Christchurch just in time for my mates flight - phew! The car's still down in Twizel getting an engine transplant... fingers crossed she makes it out!

Till next time - peace out,
Gav ;)

Credit Crunch Pound Euro Rate effect for Brits planning to visit Spain

Much is being written about the effect of the weak pound against the euro and how the Spanish Tourism (and come to think of it Italian, French, etc) markets will be hit this year.

Obviously this has come along with Credit Crunch making it even more of a threat.

For a market heavily dependent upon British tourists I strongly beleive market forces will dictate falling holiday consumables prices this year down here in Spain. Locally we are already seeing resturants making 'two for one' offers, and offering significant discounts - Picasso's Italian Restaurant in Puerto banus, one of the best and probably THE most popular restaurant in the area is offering significant early bird discounts for the coming weeks. This is the first time I have seen such offers down here on the south coast.

And every other day I get an email from one or another of the low cost airlines offering x million seats on sale. I think given the fact the British Tourists purchase their flights in pounds, and these seem to be more widely available at cheaper prices than last year, and the fact you can book your accommodation from the many British apartment owners also in Pounds the actual holiday costs will be about the same or lower than in 2008.

Which just leaves the spending when you get here. Well the good news is lying on the beach and playing in the Med, in pretty much guaranteed sun, costs little or nothing! And here in Andalusia there are loads of great places to visit in the countryside, which offer very low cost days out. And depending on where you choose to eat and drink, or by eating in a few nights of the week, I am sure most tourists can still enjoy Spain (and it is probably the same in the other Euro countries) for about the same cost as last year.

¡I'd recommend getting down to Andalucia! Although I probably shouldn't as you will clog the roads and crowd the retaurants.



Paul

The AVE - high speed train from Madrid not fast enough!

Hi All,

A very wet time here in Spain with torrential rain and storms pretty much every day for the past week. We even had a 110mph Tornado in Malaga last Sunday wreaking havoc on the town.

And looking at the UK news, and speaking to my wife in the UK, a pretty white week over there. The snow seems to have been great fun for most - and some unexpected powder freaks have made their way onto YouGoDo - Take a look at the elephants at Twycross Zoo in the snow.

I took the opportunity to visit FITUR, Spains major travel show in Madrid last week. Around half the show is taken up by the Spanish tourist industry. Each province, and tourist town seesm to have a stand, and each stand seemed to have a well stocked bar serving their local products! A great and colorful show.

From here I took the opportunity of taking my first ride on the AVE - Spain's modern high speed train service. Being a speed freak this was a journey I was looking forward to - almost 200mph on a train. That's got to be cool. Unfortunately I was very dissapointed - I was facing backwards to the direction of travel, the train was so smooth and Mamma Mia was playing on the DVD screens. A very sedate 200mph. Well I guess its designed for those who want to enjoy the journey and not thrill seekers!

On YouGoDo we have added over 2,000,000 new web pages in the past few weeks (our keyboards are on fire!) with the inclusion of our new location pages. These are a little bare at the moment, showing activity maps for the location, with some images from the great activities you can experience in the area. But we will soon be adding a great deal of new info for each location to make these comprehensive location guides for those of you planning to travel to take part in the great activities we feature.

The data on the site continues to grow with an ever increasing diversity of great activities being added.

Truck Bonnet Surfing appeared last week - Surfers can now horse surf, bonnet surf, sand dune surf, volcano surf, kite surf, snow kite surf or even water surf!

A stunning range of cycling tours has been added for the hardcore cyclist - anyone for 132 day 11,000 km ride down the Andes Trail?

And to demonstrate our vertical range from YouGoDo you can now dive to the Titanic, Climb Everest, HALO Jump (High Altitude Low Opening parachutuing for the brave!) and taking it to the extreme fly into outer space. Obviously this is in additon to the standard diving, climbing, hang gliding, gliding, helicopter flights, hot air ballooning....

A recently agreed deal with Spanish Airport Guides, who offer over 100 comprehensive airport guides, will see YouGoDo information added to their airport guides in the near future. This new content will allow Spanish Airport Guide users to see a host of great things to do at their destinations, from YouGoDo.

Cheers

Soggy Paul