Day 2 in New Zealand

Christmas decorations in the Bank Arcade. This is also New Zealand’s spring.

It’s spring in New Zealand with temperatures in the low 60s. But it is also the Christmas season, which makes for an interesting contrast. Holiday decorations already have gone up and a Christmas parade is scheduled for Nov. 14 here in Wellington. Most of the stores are having spring sales.

Since the Wellington dollar is worth around 82 cents American, you might think you could get more bang for your buck, but prices here are outrageously high. T-shirts, for example, are 20 to 25 New Zealand dollars on sale. Anything wool is $200 to $400 or more (NZ dollars).

This is a country where there was once more than 8 million sheep and now there are about 4 million. With the introduction of synthetics, the wool business is not what is used to be.

The city is clean, but there is some graffiti and the city has an Occupy Wellington movement going on. Yes, even here in the Southern Hemisphere, the natives are restless.

Wellington is a city of about 180,000 population. One of its finest shopping “malls” is Old Bank Arcade, a beautiful heritage building, once a bank, and now housing some of Wellington’s premier fashion, beauty and lifestyle stores. The Old Bank clock tells the history of the building every hour on the hour and is worth a visit. It’s open seven days.

Later today I am visiting Middle Earth filming locations from Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit,” which will be released in early 2012.

Pan Am Games

For the past week, Guadalajara has been busy patting itself on the back for the way it staged the Pan American Games, which ended Oct. 30. Prior to the opening ceremonies, there were worries that everything would not be ready. And there were problems, but most apparently were overcome by the attitude of the local people.

“We should import them to Toronto,” one Canadian volleyball player told reporters. “We need fans like that at home.”

Toronto will host the games four years from now. Guadalajara, for its part, hopes to win the Olympics. There it may be disappointed. According to press reports, the gilt on the gold medals awarded to champions already is starting to peel off.

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Jimm Budd

Reporting From Mexico City

Member of the Society of American Travel Writers

Day 1 in New Zealand

My wife and I left LAX Saturday night for a trip to New Zealand on Air New Zealand. Not the greatest flight of my life. Lots of turbulence, economy-class seats too close together leaving very little leg room, mediocre food and not hot towel.

We arrived in Auckland after a 12-and-a-half-hour flight and then a one-hour flight to Wellington. Our room was not available at the Wellington Intercontinental when we arrived at 11 a.m. Monday. We lost a day crossing the International Dateline. The time difference from Southern California is 21 hours. The room wasn’t available until after 2 p.m. Great — shower, shave, brushed my teeth and changed into casual business attire.

We attended a cocktail reception from 7 to 10 p.m. Wine was good, food a mixed bag. Looking forward to tomorrow (Tuesday in New Zealand) and a trip to the Shire and land of the Hobbits, which Peter Jackson is turning into a 2012-release movie after his successful “Lord of the Rings” trilogy.

I’ll have some photos available in my next report.

— Stan Wawer

Promotion planned

Today Mexico launches a $30 million ad campaign featuring conversations with cab and limo drivers taking travelers home after a visit South of the Border. Goal is to change the perception that Mexico is a dangerous place to vacation. Although the drivers and their cars — with cameras hidden inside — are on a payroll, the tourists and their comments are real. One can only suppose that negative comments will not be included in the program.

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Jimm Budd

Reporting From Mexico City

Member of the Society of American Travel Writers

Toluca languishes

Low-fare Spirit Airlines is planning to increase promotion of its service from Fort Lauderdale to Toluca. The route apparently has been a disappointment, Toluca being as unknown in Florida as Fort Lauderdale is in Mexico. Still, Spirit has announced intentions to bring in another flight, possibly from Dallas. All this is good news for Toluca airport management. The facility operates as an alternative to the Mexico City airport, but has been suffering. Interjet and Volaris both have shifted business to Mexico City, taking advantage of absent Mexicana Airlines.

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Jimm Budd

Reporting From Mexico City

Member of the Society of American Travel Writers

Mundo Imperial

In Acapulco, the International Mining Conference opened at the Mundo Imperial Convention Center this week, the first such event to be held at the facility, which had been scheduled to open more than three years ago. Attending were a reported 10,000 delegates from more than a dozen countries. The center, quite close to the Acapulco airport, features 35,000 square meters of exhibit space plus shops and restaurants. The Mundo Imperial complex, if plans materialize, eventually also will have nearly 1,000 hotel rooms, a shopping mall and more.

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Jimm Budd

Reporting From Mexico City

Member of the Society of American Travel Writers

San Antonio

Interjet, the fastest-growing of Mexico’s new, low-fare airlines, will inaugurate service to the United States a month from today by offering daily flights to San Antonio from Mexico City and Toluca. Toluca serves the upscale west side of the capital. Most of the passengers at first probably will be Mexicans heading to Texas for some Christmas shopping. Interjet management hopes to take over more routes previously served by Mexicana Airlines, which is not expected to pull out of intensive care.

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Jimm Budd

Reporting From Mexico City

Member of the Society of American Travel Writers