Friday, September 25, 2009

Dining in a Tree?

Yep, that’s right. The Yellow Treehouse Restaurant, located approximately 45 minutes north of Auckland, New Zealand recently opened for business.

The tree-house concept is reminiscent of childhood dreams and playtime, fairy stories of enchantment and imagination. This whimsical tree house was built up in a redwood tree, designed to look similar to a chrysalis. It is in a meadow on the edge of a forest overlooking a stream.

The circular café is 33 ft x 40 ft, with the split-level floor sitting 30 feet off the ground. The Treehouse seats 18, with the restrooms and kitchen on the ground. It was designed to be weather resistant using acrylic sheeting fixed to the roof under the fins with vertical roll-down café-style blinds within.

This is something that I would make sure to do, were I going to New Zealand!

To get started booking your next trip to New Zealand, contact a Professional Travel Agent today!

Thursday, September 17, 2009

New Laser Technology Could Reduce Pirate Attacks

Somali pirates could face a new space-age weapon used to stop hijackings on the high seas. This would be a giant laser gun, similar to the laser pens used to disorientate pilots coming into land.

The Laser Dazzle System can disable pirates from 1,000 yards away. It won't harm the pirates, but is designed to confuse them when shone on their boat as they prepare to board tankers and cruise ships. It is part of a range of James Bond-style devices for shipowners shown by BAE Systems at a defense exhibition in London's Docklands. There is also a radar that can spot a dinghy from 15 miles and a device that can even turn off the pirates' engines remotely.

The technology is designed to counter the threat posed by Somali pirates off the coast of East Africa. Nato and the EU have deployed naval forces across the Indian Ocean to keep the shipping lanes to the Suez Canal open. But the area is so vast that shipowners need new ways to beat the pirates.

BAE Systems says the radar can detect the pirate dinghy 15 miles away, further than any other commercial radar, giving captains time to escape and alert naval ships. BAE System's chairman Dick Olver said: "We can put radar on the ships which looks over the horizon and can see a rubber boat. When it gets a bit nearer we can turn the engine off."

Normally reserved for military use, BAE Systems has adapted the devices for the commercial sector.

Thursday, September 03, 2009

Tour Company now Offering "Divorce Tourism"

An Indian travel company, KVTours and Travels, based in Mumbai, recently launched "Divorce Tourism" packages, designed to get spouses who are considering divorce to reconsider.

The tour operator wants warring couples to hold off consulting lawyers and go on vacation instead - with a relationship counselor. "With divorce tourism, what we're trying to do is to bring together couples who are heading towards divorce to stop them," the company's chief executive Vijesh Thakker said. India, where marriage is still viewed as the bedrock of society, has traditionally had one of the world’s lowest divorce rates.

Only about one in 100 marriages fail, compared with one in two in the United States. But the divorce rate is rising, particularly in India's big cities. Reasons for the rise include the greater empowerment of women in urban India through better education and employment, also interference from in-laws, many of whom live with married couples in the joint family structure, or imported ideas of "love marriages", as opposed to ones arranged by families along social, religious or caste lines.

There are various Divorce Tourism packages available, from week-long stays in hill station resorts costing about $860 US dollars to more expensive foreign destinations. "We're trying to send them where they have not been before, where there are not many people - and no relatives," said Thakker. Experienced marriage counselors, whose costs are paid through deals made with hoteliers and travel agents, will accompany the married couples, encouraging them to patch up their differences and make a fresh start.

To get started booking your next vacation, contact a Professional Travel Agent!