North Pole cruise; Taste of Film; Chi, The Spa; Mr & Mrs Smith; Currumbin
For anyone who’s dreamt of standing on top of the world, you could do worse than getting there on a nuclear icebreaker.
POLAR EXPRESS
NORTH POLE CRUISE
expeditioncruisespecialists.com
For anyone who’s dreamt of standing on top of the world, you could do worse than getting there on board the world’s most powerful nuclear icebreaker. Russian ship 50 Years of Victory is powered by two nuclear reactors and has a spoon-shaped bow capable of smashing through ice 3m thick. The Artika-class vessel takes its 128 passengers from Murmansk, Russia, on 14-day expedition cruises to the North Pole via the nature sanctuary of the Franz Josef Land archipelago, home to polar bears, walruses and huge colonies of seabirds. Guests spend a full day at the pole, where they can raise a glass of bubbles to 90 degrees north and enjoy a barbecue on the ice. Victory is no tourist ship but offers comfortable accommodation with exterior views. It has two saunas, a gym, a heated seawater pool, plus guests have the option of taking helicopter rides during their voyage. Expedition Cruise Specialists is offering savings of $6600 a couple for voyages departing on July 8, 19 and 30 next year. From $38,795 a person twin-share.
PENNY HUNTER
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OH, GET A ROOM
MR & MRS SMITH
A gift card for accommodation is a nifty idea for travel-addicted relatives and friends. The Mr & Mrs Smith Get a Room vouchers, shaped like Do Not Disturb swing-tags, come packaged in chic cardboard folders designed by British-based fashion illustrator Angelica Hicks. Mr & Mrs Smith represents about 1000 stylish properties worldwide, including the peerless Aman Tokyo. From $50 to $1500, valid for 12 months.
SUSAN KUROSAWA
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LOST WORLD FOUND
CURRUMBIN WILDLIFE SANCTUARY
For 70 years, Queensland’s Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary has been a Gold Coast holiday must-do. Childhood photos of rainbow lorikeets swamping a feeding plate you’re holding aloft, anyone? Through the decades the sanctuary, gifted to the National Trust in 1976, has broadened its offerings with koala, kangaroo, echidna, crocodile and dingo “experiences”. But from Boxing Day, it will head back 100 million years or so with the opening of a Lost Valley exotic precinct, set in 5ha of lush tropical vegetation akin to the World Heritage Gondwana Rainforests of the Gold Coast hinterland. Expect sightings of the weird and wonderful from across the world, including ring-tailed lemurs (pictured), cotton-top tamarins, red pandas, capybaras, free-flying birds and unusual reptiles. The National Trust says the project has created an “incredibly natural, sustainable and biological environment for the animals and plants to thrive”. It’s all a long way from the original feeding grounds devised by owner Alex Griffiths as a means of keeping birds off his flowerbeds.
GRAHAM ERBACHER
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FOOD FOR THOUGHT
TASTE OF FILM
The love affair between food and cinema is an enduring one. Think Danish masterpiece Babette’s Feast, Ang Lee’s divine Eat Drink Man Woman, The One Hundred-Foot Journey with Helen Mirren as a Michelin-starred madame, even animated gem Ratatouille — and that’s just for entrees. All blend human drama with mouth-watering cuisine. Celebrity Cruises is getting in on the action with its Taste of Film experience, which takes place at the outdoor cinema on the Lawn Club (yes, that’s real grass under your tootsies) or rooftop terrace. Guests settle in on the ship’s top deck for a film screening while wait staff bring delicious morsels, carefully timed to arrive as the scenes unfold. T+I recently sampled melt-in-the-mouth pork belly and miniature doughnuts while watching 2014 film Chef on Celebrity Solstice and can confirm popcorn and a choc-top don’t cut it any more. From $US20 ($26) a person on Celebrity Solstice, Millennium, Infinity and Summit.
PH
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SODASHI SOOTHER
CHI, THE SPA
For the ultimate in festive-season pampering, the award-winning CHI, The Spa at Shangri-La Hotel, Sydney, offers an exclusive 90-minute Oud Renewal Therapy for body, scalp and face using all-natural Australian skincare brand Sodashi. Centrepiece of the treatment is a pressure-point facial massage with Sodashi’s musky Arabian Oud Body Oil, rich in frankincense, sandalwood and rose, plus precious oud resin from the Aquilaria tree, one of the world’s most expensive natural raw materials at a breathtaking $9000-plus a kilogram. Be sure to request Japanese therapist Sawako to work her magic on tired complexion and knotted muscles; $240 (weekends, $260). Sodashi products are on sale at CHI, including Arabian Oud Body Oil, which also makes a moisturising addition to a bath or as a hair treatment ($159; 100ml). CHI treatment vouchers are ideal as gifts and valid for 12 months for options from the full menu range.
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