Mount Cook National Park, or Aoraki, is a mountain in the New Zealand Southern Alps, the highest point in New Zealand, located in the western part of the South Island near the coast. This saddle-shaped, steep-sided, crystalline mountain is covered with snow and glaciers.
Tag Archives: Travel
African Lodges: Zannier Hotels Sonop In Namibia
The opulence of old-world safari is alive and well at Zannier Hotels Sonop, a luxury tented camp set in the wilds of Namibia’s southeastern corner.
Conjuring up an image of rugged explorers, the word ‘safari’ is one of the most evocative in the history of travel. Zannier Hotels Sonop effortlessly captures this old-world charm with opulent tents, separate cocktail and cigar lounge, open-air cinema and gastronomic restaurant.
The 10 spacious tents are constructed on top of boulders, reflecting the life of yesteryear’s wealthy explorers. Furnished with antiques, colorful carpets and precious wood, these lavish accommodations capture the look and feel of a bygone era. Panoramic views look out onto otherworldly desert landscapes, while in-tent telescopes invite dreamy stargazing moments.
Aerial Views: The Bahamas
The Bahamas, known officially as the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is a sovereign country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago’s land area and is home to 88% of the archipelago’s population.
City Walking Tour: Bilbao In Northern Spain (4K)
Bilbao, an industrial port city in northern Spain, is surrounded by green mountains. It’s the de facto capital of Basque Country, with a skyscraper-filled downtown. It’s famed for the Frank Gehry–designed Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, which sparked revitalization when it opened in 1997. The museum houses prominent modern and contemporary works, but it’s the curvy, titanium-clad building that receives the most attention.
City Walking Tours: Bath In Southwestern England
Bath, city, unitary authority of Bath and North East Somerset, historic county of Somerset, southwestern England. Bath lies astride the River Avon (Lower, or Bristol, Avon) in a natural arena of steep hills. It was built of local limestone and is one of the most elegant and architecturally distinguished of British cities. Its 16th-century abbey church of St. Peter and St. Paul is late Perpendicular Gothic and is noted for its windows, but it is the wealth of classical Georgian buildings mounting the steep valley sides that gives Bath its distinction. The city was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1987.
Medieval Bath, incorporated by charter in 1189, shared in the west-of-England wool trade and later in the cloth trade, but the baths, although still used by royalty, were poorly maintained. When portions of the Roman baths were rediscovered in 1755, Bath had already revived as a spa. In its heyday as a fashionable resort—presided over by the social figure Richard (“Beau”) Nash, one of the greatest English dandies—the Elizabethan town was rebuilt and extended in Palladian style by the architects John Wood the Elder and Younger and their patron, Ralph Allen, who provided the stone from his local quarries and built the mansion of Prior Park (1735–48) overlooking the city. In 1769–74 Robert Adam built Pulteney Bridge to connect Bath with the new suburb of Bathwick across the River Avon.
Caribbean Stays: Cap Maison On Saint Lucia
Cap Maison, an iconic boutique hotel on the North of the Caribbean island of Saint Lucia, is a perfect example.
Quietly understated with staff so full of joy, it was hard not to be swept along with the wonderful atmosphere, as you soak up jaw-dropping views out to sea and bask in the sound of waves that are audible — and visible — from the vast beds, fitted with cloud-like bedding.
Views: The Gondolas And Canals Of Venice, Italy
The gondola is a traditional venetian boat used to move around the city of Venice Italy. In the absence of roads, the inhabitants couldn’t use horses, and the size of the canals required a thin and flat bottomed embarcation. The venitian gondola surely answers all those problems.
The construction of a gondola requires a lot of time ( about a year ) and some well selected pieces of wood (8 different types). The craftsman starts by building the skeleton, then adds the sides and keeps building on top of the structure.
Winter Walks: Södermalm In Stockholm, Sweden (4K)
Södermalm [sødərˈmalm] (or just Söder) is the southern borough of central Stockholm, consisting of the island of Södermalm proper, two smaller islands connected to it from the west (Långholmen [ˈlɔŋˈhɔlmən] and Reimersholme [rejməʂˈhɔlmə]), as well as the neighbourhood of Hammarby Sjöstad on the opposite bank of the Hammarby Sjö in the east, which is a redeveloped former industrial area that was transformed into a model sustainable residential community.
Winter Walks: Sils Im Engadin, Switzerland (4K)
Sils is “the loveliest corner of the whole earth”. These are the words of Friedrich Nietzsche, who wrote his “Zarathustra” while staying in this picturesque village located between the lakes of Sils and Silvaplana. Sils is also a place in which to escape the madding crowd, whichever of the two parts of the village – Sils-Maria or Sils-Baselgia – you decide to stay in.
Marine Life: Preserving Coral Reefs In Maldives
The One Ocean Summit opens this Wednesday in the French port of Brest. Seas and oceans cover around 70 percent of the surface of our planet, but continue to face an onslaught of problems, from pollution to rising temperatures. In the Maldives, coral reefs are dying because of climate change. However, locals are doing their best to save them. Our France 2 colleagues report, with FRANCE 24’s Wassim Cornet.
Maldives, officially the Republic of Maldives, is an archipelagic country in the Indian subcontinent of Asia, situated in the Indian Ocean. It lies southwest of Sri Lanka and India, about 750 kilometres from the Asian continent’s mainland.
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