The bogus sign that has all the colour and logo of a real DOC sign, asks track uses to

“Please do not defecate in our National Parks. Heavy duty tramping nappies are available from all DOC visitor centres free of charge, and DOC hut wardens carry an emergency supply. Toilets in conservation areas are strictly for urination only.”

Understandingly no one has claimed responsibility for the fake signs but the message appears to be clearly from someone who believe that commercialisation of New Zealand’s walks have led to an increase in human waste pollution.

The magazines annual readers choice awards were conducted via an online questionnaire that resulted in over 25,000 reader responses.

Blanket Bay Lodge located on the shores of lake Wakatipu, Queenstown, was New Zealand’s only accommodation provider to make the top 100 list.

Previous New Zealand entries in the prestigious top one hundred have included the North Islands Huka Lodge located on the Waikato River, Taupo.

In the last few years Huka Lodge has been noticeably absent from the list. Having stayed at both properties Blanket Bay is clearly the superior accommodation of the two lodges.

New Zealand has followed many other countries in the hand held cell phone ban after statistics showed that between the period of 2003 to 2008, 482 injury crashes and 25 fatal crashes on New Zealand roads where attributed to the use of a mobile phone.

The new law states –

Calls can be made and received only if the cell phone is “secured in a mounting fixed to the vehicle” or is fully voice-activated.
The rules apply even while stopped at a traffic light. Those caught breaking the law face an $80 fine and 20 demerit points on their licence.

The opportunity to be the first person in the country to be issued with an infringement notice proved to much of a temptation this morning. After fuelling up the thirsty Hummer I went cruising to make a little history.

I deduced that I would have two problems to overcome in order to be NZ’s first ticket holder. Firstly how would I know that I was the first in New Zealand to be issued with a ticket? The second was that Police have publicly stated that they would be only issuing warnings in the first few days or weeks of the new law. My solution to the last problem would be to ask the officer to wait a moment while I finish the call. That should be enough to infuriate one into issuing an infringement rather that a warning.

Little did I know the real problem was finding a police patrol.

Recently land Transport NZ completed the Northern Gateway toll road to help alleviate congestion by bypass the town of Orewa. Although Transport NZ boasts that the new road would reduces delays, congestion and travel times, improves access to Northland for tourists and provides people with a much more direct and safer route between Auckland and Northland.

A free flowing highway is only as good as its weakest point. Unfortunately it is obvious for all regular uses of State highway one north of Auckland that thew new toll road would do little to help ease traffic congestion during the holiday rush periods.

The Interlaken area is very similar to the south of The South Island of New Zealand with the exception that our small towns lack these types of retail stores. My advice to any would be traveller looking for that romantic get-away to New Zealand is to bring your own adult novelties.

1 – Please drive on the left hand side of the road…..at all times.
2 – Please note that New Zealand dives on the left hand side of the road in both the North and South Islands.
3 – Please drive on the left hand side while in car parking lots.
4 – Parking your over length beast is your problem so please don’t park with the camper tail end blocking parking lot access ways.
5 – Councils will ticket campervans that take more than one street park.
6 – If your camper van does not have toilet facilities, please don’t use our parks and reserves as one.
7 – NZ law makes rear view mirrors a requirement on all vehicles. Please use them to see the pain and misery that you are inflicting on vehicles following.
8 – Once you have discovered these mirrors, they may provide hours of entertainment watching cars jostle for pole position in the que behind you. When you are bored of this dance of frustration, please pull over to let them overtake.
9 – Please don’t get frustrated that you may need to pull to the side of the road more than occasionally to allow vehicles to pass.
10 – Convoying with friends in other campervans can be fun but not for drivers following who find passing two, three or sometimes four vans almost impossible.
11 – Passing lanes require you to drive in the left hand lane when not overtaking.
12 – Please do not attempt to use a passing lane to overtake a slower vehicle when other cars are behind you.
13 – New Zealand has plenty of open space for everyone to enjoy. Please respect other holiday makers privacy when parking you vehicle in a scenic locations.
14 – Campervans are not 4 wheel drive vehicles so please don’t get offended if other vehicles do not stop to offer you assistance in off road situations.
15 – Please ask your rental car company and not petrol station customers if your van requires diesel or unleaded fuel.
16 – New Zealanders are happy to offer directions but please supplement their advice with your own New Zealand road map.
17 – Please don’t decide that intersections are the ideal ‘time out’ to read your road map.

Recently the South Island’s Queenstown Lakes District Council has publicly blamed vehicle hire companies lack of co-operation in collecting unpaid fines. While rental companies passed on customers’ details to council they are refusing to debit credit cards to help with fine collection. Queenstown Council is citing this for $2.4 million in unpaid parking fines from overseas rental car drivers.

NZ Rental car companies understandably do not want to be seen as the enforcer, claiming it is the role for government and not private companies to collect government infringements.

Queenstown Council are always looking for new enforcement methods to collect funds to help prop up their future cash short falls. Recently council started to charge children’s sporting clubs for the use of the district public sporting fields. Now Council is pressuring the Rental Vehicle Association to provide customer’s credit card details in order to pursue fines from overseas visitors.

New Zealand experienced a 37 per cent increase in Australians who holidayed here compared with the same period last year. Many commentated have proffered very plausible reasons for the sharp increase in Australian arrivals.

Common analysis has the combination of high capacity on the trans Tasman air route resulting in lower airfares, combined with the favourable exchange rate as the likely stimulus for the sharp increase in arrivals.

Many Australian visitors that I have talked to have confirmed that these factors were a major influence in their destination choice but it was the Australian Government’s stimulus package earlier this year that was the real prompt for their holiday. Most state that without the AUD $950 per tax payer payout, they would not have travelled overseas this year.

Prime Minister Rudd’s fiscal stimulant payment designed to buoy the Australian economy has resulted in a large stimulus for the New Zealand economy.

The flip side to this Aussie invasion is the dramatic decrease in higher spending Asian, Japanese and North American visitors.

By contrast, Australian visitors are lower per day spenders. When you further consider that the stimulus package cash payment was means tested and capped at $100,000 taxable income. The sharp increase in arrivals has only cushioned the industries downturn.

It is one of a very few parrots in the world that are omnivorous. Unfortunately Keas also are very inquisitive and are not shy to close human contact. Keas particularly enjoys stripping cars of rubber window seals, window wiper blades and even tyre covers.

Areas that you will commonly encounter Keas are along the road to Milford Sound, Arthurs Pass and around Mt Cook.

Many visitors have returned to their rental vehicle to find significant damage done by these personable birds. Your car hire company however may not have fluffy thoughts about the damage done.

I have previously posted on the promised guaranteed rental yield of this type of investment but it is interesting to see the actual break down on the return of investment.

The prominent three-bedroom Heritage Villas, managed by the Heritage Hotel opposite.

The one-night rack rate for a Heritage Villa is $1230 including GST, but the hotel’s website has a July offer at just $575.

Even that might be optimistic – owner income statements from April on two Heritage Villas show an average rate of $320 including GST.

And April was an “excellent” month, Heritage Hotel told owners, with the two villas between them averaging 42 per cent occupancy – “occupancy” being the other magic word for would-be apartment investors.

So over the 30 days of April – and we’ll exclude GST from here on – these two villas took in average guest rental income of $3600 each.

Let’s look at how that $3600 is sliced and diced.

First you’re docked “room expenses” – well, somebody’s got to clean them, and those bathroom goodies that guests nick have to be replaced.

Room expenses aren’t cheap – the Heritage charged these villa owners an average of $119 a night.

And then there’s sales and marketing – because you have to promote or die in this business. How does $8.52 a night sound? Then because hotel and villa complexes don’t run themselves, there’s another deduction called “administration” – the $14.24 per night charge isn’t explained.

“Repairs and maintenance” is at least self-evident – it’s what you shell out after some rock-star guest has tied one on. We’ll deduct $10.46 a night for that.

And Queenstown Lakes District Council naturally wants its cut – rates on the two units for the month averaged $296 each.

Then there’s a “body corporate” that needs feeding – in this case, a specialist Christchurch company that handles exterior maintenance, insurance, Sky TV, pest control, window cleaning and so on – an average of $244 per unit per month for that.

Finally, the ubiquitous FF&E charge – a deduction for future replacements of “furniture, fittings and equipment” as they wear out. Can’t have guests complaining about worn-out mattresses when they’re paying top dollar to stay in your villa, can we? We’ll take $107 per unit for the month and put it aside for a rainy day.

There, that’s everything. What are we left with?

Er no, it’s not everything. Silly us, we’ve forgotten the “management fee” – 12.5 per cent of every dollar paid by guests goes to developer Rod Nielsen’s Little Rock Management company, which then splits it with the Heritage Hotel.

So how much is an owner left with? Not a lot when all’s said and done.

Taking that one month of April and averaging the two villas, owners get about $45 per guest night – just 16 per cent of what guests paid.

Worse still for Queenstown managed apartment owners is re-sales have fallen into a very large hole with many properties selling for 50% less the original purchase price.

Previously I posted on the potential disastrous Queenstown apartment accommodation market but on a positive note, prospective holiday home owners can now purchase apartments for below the building/replacement costs.