New Zealand / Australia

On Bondi Beach you can spot just about every Australian beach cliche: bronzed Aussie lifesavers pulling pale British tourists from the surf, topless beach bunnies baking themselves senseless under the blazing sun, men in singlets sipping Victoria Bitter beer and children nursing rapidly disintegrating ice creams.

General Profile Area 103,736 sq mi = 269,000 sq km Population 1988 3,343,000 Population Growth 0.88 % Population Density 32 /sq mi GNP 1988 (millions) $25,856 GNP per Capita $7,734 Capital City Wellington Banks 8:30am to 4:30pm - can vary slightly Business Hours Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm. Late night for shopping is either Thursday or Friday. Most shops open Saturday morning, with some shops and markets remaining open all week-end, in cer...

Fraser Island is a giant sand island famous for its dingos, wildlife, native birds, rainforests, creeks, lakes, fishing, and scenery. Overview: Fraser Island is the world's largest sand island. It is World Heritage Listed and has become an eco tourism venue now that its timber and sand mining industries have been abandoned. Fraser Island attained its World Heritage Listing in December 1992 in recognition of the island's exceptional sand dune systems, its rainforests on sand, and its beautiful freshwater lakes. But in the twenty-first century the future of the island is in...

Scores of islands are scattered off Australia, between the Queensland coast and the Great Barrier Reef, but Heron Island is actually on the reef. So where a trip to the reef from some islands means a long boat ride, on Heron the coral country is right at the front door. Heron is not a large island (you can saunter around its white-sand perimeter in a hour), but it is a protected sanctuary for both sea turtles and birds; watching turtle hatchlings make their perilous journey to the sea is a prime activity around the Christmas season. Still, it is the diving that's the main attractio...

New Zealand, if you didn't know, is actually two islands. Generally speaking, the North Island equals beaches, and the South Island equals mountains. There is, as you might guess, a bit more to it than that, but the formula does reflect the great Down Under passion for the outdoors. The unmatched scenery includes rain forests and glaciers, rivers and lakes loaded with trophy trout, alpine mountains with superb skiing, and the kind of hiking found on the Milford Track, touted as “the finest walk in the world.”. Yes, these Kiwis are an active bunch: They invented bungy jumping, believe t...

General We're not called downunder without reason! Our coldest month is July, and our warmest is in January; our seasons opposite to those in the Northern Hemisphere. Average temperatures are around 15C (60F) in the upper North Island, and around 10C (50F) near the bottom of the South Island. The climate is fairly mild, without the extremes experienced in many other countries. In fact, New zealand doesn't tend to have temperatures over 35C (100F) or under -10C (14F). It tends to snow only in the mountains in the North Island, and mainly in the Southern Alps in the South Island, althou...

Location: Australia What's Cool: The annual Nude Olympics ----------------------------------------- Relaxed and lively is the only way to describe Samurai Beach, which backs up onto Bardot's Clothing Optional Resort in Port Stephens. On this half-mile stretch of white sand, nudists let it all hang out while taking part in volleyball, tug-of-war and Frisbee. As one of the sportiest nude beaches worldwide, it is only appropriate that Samurai Beach hosts the annual Nude Olympics every November. Events include the Nude Torch Relay, Nude Surfing and the Nude Beach Girl and Guy Competitio...

Australians like to think of their offshore island state as a homegrown version of England – and the northern and northwestern regions of Tasmania seem to be right be out of Somerset or Surrey. While the historic shipping-port city of Hobart celebrates the arts and has many fine restaurants, the unspoiled wilderness areas set apart this jewel in the Australian crown. More than 20 percent of the island is listed as a United Nations World Heritage Area, in recognition of natural treasures that range from rain forest to beach to impenetrable bush. Throw in a temperate climate, and you have the...

Geography New Zealand is situated the same distance eastwards from Australia as London is to Moscow. So if anybody tells you it's right next to Australia, tell them to go away. It is bigger than Connecticut, but smaller than Canada. There are two main islands - The North Island and The South Island. There is also about a zillion other islands dotted around and about, none of which need concern you. The South Island is slightly bigger than the North Island, but South Islanders that refer to themselves as "Mainlanders" are *&^%$#. The largest city in New Zealand is Auckland,...

Lying just off the Queensland coast and sheltered by the Great Barrier Reef, the Whitsundays are Australia's answer to the cruising grounds of the Caribbean, and home to the island continent's largest fleet of charter yachts. The 74 islands – most of them in pristine national parks – offer a lifetime's worth of quiet anchorages and empty white-sand beaches fanned by steady breezes virtually every day of the year. Whether you're out for a daysail, on a crewed yacht, or bareboating on your own, traveling by boat also opens the way to the great snorkeling and fishing found in ...