Welcome to the Bales blog, where we get a chance to share our thoughts, experiences and future plans with you and hopefully provide you with an interesting insight into what goes on ‘behind the scenes’ at Bales Worldwide.

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'Kia Ora!'

CARLY WENT ON A FAMILIARISATION TRIP TO NEW ZEALAND

Prior to the release of our new Australia and New Zealand brochure (due January 2008) I was lucky enough to have the chance to explore the South Island of New Zealand.

Having chosen the self-drive option, to give us the greatest flexibility, my colleague and I headed off on our adventure. We were told by numerous locals that the weather in spring was ‘a little unpredictable’ and this was evident by the strong winds, rain, snow and even a small earthquake that we encountered. But rest assured we also had sunny days with blue skies, when I wouldn’t have wanted to be anywhere else. We quickly found that though this is wonderful driving country, the journey times generally seemed to take a little longer than anticipated, mainly due to the frequent stops to take photos of the stunning scenery.

Comparable in size to Great Britain, New Zealand has a population of only 4 million – making it one of the world’s least crowded countries, but it does have a lot of sheep! The South Island has an array of dramatic scenery from mountains, lakes and rivers to rainforests, glaciers and fiords – there is something to appeal to every visitor.

My first stop was Kaikoura, famed for its year-round sperm whale population, with tours available both by air and boat to view these mystical creatures, as well as dolphins and fur seals. I took a light aircraft flight and saw two whales – the pilot is very knowledgeable and he can even tell you when the whale is about to dive so you have to be quick with your camera to get a shot of the tail before it disappears!

Christchurch is New Zealand’s most ‘English’ city and the perfect place to relax for a few days, browsing the shops, sampling the cafes and restaurants, strolling through the inner-city park or punting on the Avon. Unfortunately we only had an overnight stay here, oh to be a tourist!

Queenstown is renowned as New Zealand’s adventure capital offering a range of activities from the extreme to relaxed exploration. This was our base from which to explore the Southland’s remote Fiordland National Park including a cruise on Milford Sound. The scenery is fantastic, and the perfect end to the day would have been to fly back to Queenstown – but the weather had other ideas and we had to do the journey by road.

The West Coast offers even more diversity – isolated by the rest of the country by the Southern Alps – here you will find Franz Josef and Fox, the only glaciers in the world that descend into rainforest. The best way to view them is to do a glacier walk, or a scenic flight with a landing.

The final leg of our journey was the TranzAlpine train from Greymouth to Christchurch – rated one of the world’s greatest scenic railway journeys - before flying home.

This is one country that I definitely need to go back to, but next time on holiday!

'Where you can dip your toes into two different oceans, acquire a ‘taste’ for fine wine, tango till dawn and enjoy the magnificent scenery in between'

GRETA TOUR MANAGED THE 15 DAY SOUTH AMERICA COAST TO COAST JOURNEY

At the end of September I was a Tour Manager on our South America Coast to Coast tour… a superb journey which commences in Santiago, the capital of Chile and nestled at the foot of the Andes. You cannot come to this part of the world without visiting a local vineyard and sampling the wine. The colourful houses and historic ambience of the port city of Valparaiso was memorable, together with beautiful pacific beaches of Vina del Mar.

A true highlight of this tour was the stunning journey through the Andes from Santiago to Mendoza, wine capital of Argentina. There was still snow on the mountains and where it was starting to melt it created spontaneous waterfalls, this is an ever changing vista depending on time of year. From Mendoza we journeyed to the bustling city of Buenos Aires, and on to visit the Casa Rosada (Pink House) where Eva Peron stood on the balconies and addressed her people below.

The area of La Boca is one of the most colourful and vibrant, where you can buy goods from local artisans whilst watching a spontaneous tango show. If you didn’t think things could get any better, well read on. Next stop was the amazing Iguassu falls and I was lucky enough to view these from both the Argentine and Brazilian side. I also emerged very wet from a raft trip along the river which is probably as close as I’ll get to white water rafting. Rio de Janeiro was the final port of call and what better place to finish such a diverse journey. Our hotel faced the beach at Copacabana and the Atlantic Ocean. However the highlight for me here was the visit to Corcovado mountain and the statue of Christ Redeemer, this was truly a sharp intake of breath moment and the view of Rio was outstanding.

This was a journey full of highlights, enhanced by the company of my fellow travellers and the guides who shared their exceptional knowledge.

'The contradiction between modern technology and this simplistic way of life could not be starker!'

This was my first visit to Peru and I was obviously full of high hopes as to how emotional and moving it would be to finally visit Machu Picchu after many years of yearning to actually experience it first hand.

In reality, it was a fantastic and tremendously interesting experience but unless you are visiting very first/last thing there are obviously a lot of visitors all around, which can be a slight distraction. Now, don’t let that comment fool you into thinking that we weren’t impressed or that it didn’t live up to expectations….it did! It is a pretty unbelievable site and its location alone can only leave you speechless (and breathless).

Sometimes, however the outstanding highlight from a trip can sneak up on your ‘blindside’ and take you by surprise. Now, prior to going, I knew very little about Lake Titicaca other than it was the world’s highest navigable lake and it is located on the Altiplano. My knowledge of the Aymara Indians was also sketchy to say the least. So on the morning that we set out by boat from Puno to visit the Uros Islands little did I expect that it would turn out to be the highlight of our trip to this fabulous country!

The islands themselves are all build from reeds, billions of which grow in the area and the huge surprise (to the un-initiated) is that the islands are all literally floating on the lake. After a short journey by boat, we jump onto one of the many islands in the vicinity and it really is a strange experience to feel a slight bounce as you land on the reeds. The Indians that live on the islands greet you as long lost cousins and are just the friendliest people that you can ever meet and are all dressed in the beautiful highly coloured traditional attire of the region. After an explanation about their small community (9 of them inhabit this particular floating basketwork of reeds) you are invited into their home. This consists of a small reed hut with a bed and his/hers pegs to hang clothes down each side of the structure.

And here is where it hits you! There, in the corner, is a TV and a solar powered battery which is used for the TV and light in the home at night – only about 3 hours power is garnered each day, so they have to be pretty discriminatory about what the power is used for. The contradiction between modern technology and this simplistic way of life could not be starker!

The only income that the Indians have is from visiting tourists and they offer a selection of handcrafted wares to sell to you, all of the while still displaying a lovely smile on their faces. My wife and I found the visit both uplifting and humbling in equal quantities and it was a great reality check on the sometimes pampered existence that we can all live within (by comparison to these wonderful people). Our visit was rounded off by a 15 minute ‘journey’ on a traditional reed boat accompanied by a local male rower and his 4-5 year old daughter who sang ‘twinkle, twinkle little star’ to us as we drifted across the lake and tried to take in all of this unforgettable scene against a stunning blue sky.

What an experience!

'I know I am dizzy- and that is the disadvantage of not keeping blonde hair..' 

MANDY NICKERSON, MD UPDATE

Every day I work at Bales I never underestimate how important it is for us to get it right for every single traveller who chooses to put their trust and faith in us. I also realise the strength and the value of good relationships with all our partners. I say this, because on Friday night we were advised that there was an overbooking situation and a group of 21 who were arriving at a particular hotel on Sunday were going to be sent instead to a three star property. Not a chance we would accept that! So I was straight on the phone to senior personnel at the hotel albeit that it was very late on a Friday night to clearly say that we cannot even consider this happening. After several phone calls and an exchange of e-mails we re-secured all the rooms for our clients and of course they were none the wiser. This should of course be our practice but you may be surprised that not every tour operator goes to these lengths. If we hadn’t built up a strong and amicable relationship with mutual respect it would not have been resolved. Things happen all the time that need to be dealt with and in my view it is always about who you know that may be able to help.

I know I am dizzy– and that is the disadvantage of not keeping blonde hair– whenever did you hear of a dizzy brunette or redhead? I know other people that have the ‘dizzy’ trait and we all pacify each other that it is because we have so many things that we are juggling and thinking about. Take a couple of weeks ago when we had a trade exhibition and our colleagues from around the world were going to be in London. For many of us it is such a full on week – breakfast meetings, appointments all day long and evening functions to attend so a time when the office need to know that you are contactable on your mobile!! That is all well and good if you know where your mobile is!! I must commend Mossman’s here as I had left my phone there and not only did they take my calls and asked callers to advise the owner where her phone was, I think they possibly wrapped up some good deals for Bales Worldwide. What a week it was tough – but so fantastic to just keep seeing contacts and working on new and exciting innovations for the future. Watch this space!!

We hosted a table of journalists at the British Guild of Travel Writers Awards dinner on Sunday night, I am always amazed at the business functions that happen on weekend nights but I suppose this is special as it is the night before the trade exhibition opens so they have a lot of guests from overseas. Well, yes a lot, there were 500 guests – and the last time for the next two years that The Savoy would host these prestigious awards as it is closing for extensive renovation. I do think that it needs it, but even so, it is still one of my favourite hotels in London. In the world of travel and media it was a star studded night with many familiar faces going up for awards. Much as I love to be home with my family on Sunday night it was a really fun evening and it is so important for the media to see us and put us front of mind and see that we are still going strong.

If you do not charge, it is easy to get on a speaking circuit especially when you have strong opinions about things. I do this again to profile Bales and was privileged enough to be on a panel at the Every Woman conference and soon after to speak at the Luxury Travel Forum. Networking can become ‘not working’ if you don’t really analyse what you are aiming to achieve when going to different events but I honestly cannot think of more than a handful of occasions in the last too many years to say that I have not found an event useful for business to attend.

As well as going to these events, there is still a day job to do so it necessitates enormous energy to try and fill both roles in the same week, but because of the adrenalin of meeting people, my energy is right up in the top corner – until I stop and then I drop!!

I promise you, you are the benefactor of all this as it just means that there is a wider circle of people that we work with, who understand and support our desire to exceed your expectations. I am so confident of this that I challenge you if we haven’t done this for a Bales holiday you have taken in the past couple of years with Bales.

To move on to something different I am so so proud of my sister in law Nicola and my nephew Tom. Some of you may have watched the restaurant series with Raymond Blanc– it is similar to the apprentice– except that 10 couples are given a restaurant to theme and build themselves and each week Raymond Blanc closes a restaurant. Well Nicola and Tom were one of the couples. They didn’t win but I think have shown their tenacity and followed their dream because on Saturday I was one of the guests at a soft opening of their restaurant Seasons at the Boot, near Hitchin, Herts. If you live near there give it a whirl. You won’t be disappointed, the food is excellent and the ambience perfect.

This doesn’t help with my health and fitness regime but well it is nearly Christmas – and then New Year so maybe in January….