Rotorua

New Zealand’s Tourism Industry Awards for 2009 announced this week include a Rotorua nature park, an entrepreneurial young leader and man credited for making tourism one of the country’s most valuable industries.

Times may be challenging but many New Zealanders are still ready to show their big hearts, and next week they will have an official opportunity to do that as the country celebrates a unique goodwill fest.

The ubiquitous iPod might be a familiar sight on the street these days, but in New Zealand the digital music players are being used in remote native forests to train rare birds.

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.

History will be repeating itself when world renowned botanist David Bellamy and a flock of endangered kōkako songbirds return to the New Zealand bush in September to commemorate an environmental milestone.

Kupe was one of Polynesia’s most famous voyagers and now an exhibition celebrating his life is on the move itself, leaving the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa in Wellington and heading to the central North Island town of Rotorua.

The match schedule for the 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand has been announced in Auckland today (12.03.09) with 13 venues across the country chosen to host pool matches.

New Zealand’s teenage golfing sensation Danny Lee swung his way into a dramatic victory at the Johnny Walker Classic in Perth yesterday (22.02.09), confirming his reputation as one of the world’s most exciting young golfers.

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.