Lake Taupo

New Zealand’s Huka Lodge in Taupo has received another prestigious award for excellence - this time for maintaining consistently high standards for 25 years.

The clocks are ticking and the final countdown has begun – there’s just one year to go until New Zealand stages its biggest-ever event, the 2011 Rugby World Cup.

Hot on the heels of Rugby World Cup, and a bag full of international tourism accolades from 2011, New Zealand is set to stay in the international spotlight for 2012.

From 12 December Australian travellers will be able to take advantage of direct flights into the central North Island of New Zealand.

The Lake Track cycle trail along the western shores of Lake Taupo has received a cash injection in the final stage of becoming one of the 18 Great Rides of Nga Haerenga, the New Zealand Cycle Trail.

Visitors to Lake Taupo in New Zealand’s central North Island might be surprised by the dress code at some of the event capital’s major functions this month.

Certain parts of New Zealand were a little noisy over the weekend, as New Zealanders got together – in a uniquely Kiwi fashion – to mark the one-year-to-go date for Rugby World Cup 2011.

Five of New Zealand’s top hotels have made it onto the list of 500 best hotels in the world just published by international magazine Travel & Leisure.

Two famed New Zealand lodges - Glenorchy’s Blanket Bay and Taupo’s Huka Lodge - have been named among the best luxury hotels on Earth.

Two top New Zealand luxury lodges - Kauri Cliffs, in Northland, and The Farm at Cape Kidnappers, in Hawke's Bay - have come in #1 and #2 in an international travel survey.