Lately, I tend to stumble upon YouTube videos about New Zealand that are indeed wetting my appetite. Are these finds just coincidences, or am I simply visiting the "right" websites?

100% Middle-Earth

Tourism New Zealand is marketing the country under the slogan "100% Pure New Zealand". On the occasion of the upcoming release of the first part of the "Hobbit" movie trilogy by Peter Jackson, this slogan was extended by the phrase "100% Middle-Earth" about once month ago. At the same time, a fantastic, one-minute long commercial was published:

True to the spirit of the Tolkien film adaptions by Peter Jackson, there is even an (more than twice as long) extended version.

9 Great Walks in 9 Weeks

Just yesterday, Air New Zealand (in cooperation with the Department of Conservation) started an adventure travel contest: You may win a New Zealand holiday with hikes on all nine Great Walks in just nine weeks (more precisely, between February 11 and April 14, 2013). As the name suggests, these Great Walks are among the best multi-day hikes in New Zealand, as I could see for myself when hiking the Milford Track during my last visit.

For me, the timing is not ideal, as I have to be back in Austria by the end of March already – but hiking all nine Great Walks in just nine weeks would probably be quite exhausting anyway. Still, the commercial alone makes me want to explore at least one or two of these hikes myself:

Just four more months!