While the New Zealand summer has seen the country’s major ski fields closed for the off-season, now is the perfect time to plan your next ski NZ holiday in advance and book accommodation in Queenstown.

If you’re an avid skier or snowboarder itching for the next ski season, nothing quite beats a New Zealand holiday hitting the slopes.

Queenstown is the perfect destination for New Zealander’s and tourists interested in an exciting skiing experience.

For more info on ski Queenstown holidays check out the Visitor Information category on NZS.com.

It’s now easier than ever to compare the best prices and book NZ airfares online, especially with quick web tutorials to help you through the planning and payment steps if you need a little extra help with your New Zealand travel deals purchase.

And if you’re thinking of travelling locally this Labour weekend, check out our top selection of New Zealand destinations before booking your domestic flights NZ and New Zealand travel deals.

for the 2008 summer holiday season. Queen’s birthday at the beginning of June was the last long weekend New Zealand was privy to – so we’re all relieved to have Labour Day coming up next Monday after a four-month-drive of full working weeks.

The 27^th of October signifies the beginning of long weekends, with most of the regional anniversaries occurring between November and March, and along the way Kiwis get to enjoy Christmas, New Years, Waitangi Day and finally Easter finishing off the summer season in April.

Let’s hope the Kiwi weather gives us another great summer, can you smell the BBQs already?

What are your plans for the first long weekend? If you haven’t made any yet, grab a cheap flight out of your home city and check out one of the great central backpackers

New Zealand has to offer. Backpacker accommodation in New Zealand isn’t just for international students anymore; many city backpackers offer all of the luxuries of hotel accommodation (from private rooms to bars to WiFi access) at a fraction of the cost. The best thing about a backpackers is that normally you can book in on the fly, without a reservation – or with very little notice. Why not do something spontaneous and check in to a backpacker hostel

this weekend?

For the team at NZS.com, we can’t quite comprehend that summer break just yet – it’s a little to far away to get excited about. However, with long weekends such as Labour Day coming up, and a few annual leave days stacked up, we’ve all been thinking it’s a great time to plan a mini-break with some travel holiday deals somewhere around the country, and kickstart the summer holidays 2008

a little early.

Luckily, last minute accommodation and the internet go hand in hand, as there are several sites out there offering some of the best NZ hotel rooms at bargain prices – often just a fraction of the rack rates. Last minute New Zealand accommodation and hotel deals are easily found online these days, and are great for sporatic trips (this weekend, perhaps?) as they often just list the following four weeks of availability at thousands of accommodation providers NZ-wide on their sites. Booking with such short notice means you get the best possible accommodation deals, as hotels would rather have all of their rooms occupied, even at significantly reduced rates, than have them completely empty.

Fancy a couple of nights away over the next month to scratch that pre-Christmas itch? Find last minute accommodation deals within both New Zealand and worldwide anytime – that’s the beauty of being online!

Image from Flickr.

New Zealand’s ski resorts receive approximately a quarter of their annual tourism from Australian visitors, last year totaling 70,000 Aussie holidaymakers, reports the Dominion Post. This figure is increasing by 20 percent each year, due to better and more reliable skiing this side of the Tasman.

New Zealand is leading the world with advances in environmental sustainability, as demonstrated at last weeks World Environmental Day in Wellington. New Zealand increasingly attracts international tourists committed to sustainable eco-tourist travel options, as we are privy to several tour operators

determined to leave a smaller footprint on the globe.

Luxury tour companies such as Green Realm Travel offer tours on the New Zealand roads which are the cutting edge in comfort and environmental standards. This company has built their coaches based on the eco-friendly MAN A67 Euro 4 coach chassis, which uses progressive technology that reduces fuel consumption, exhaust-gas emissions and noise. The particle filter system in the engine make these coaches arguably the cleanest diesels in the world.

Image from Flickr.

But this, ah, we’re onto a winner.

Good ol’ Air New Zealand is offering you the chance to win flights to Australia in a gimmicky, yet oddly enticing, way. The deal is this: just send a message online to a friend in Australia (an expat Kiwi, of course) and it’ll be displayed on a billboard outside Customs House in Sydney. Just by sending this message to a mate, you’ll go into the draw for a return flight to Aussie (and so will your friend). The gallery of sent messages also makes for good voyeuristic viewing (as well as the usual ‘I luv you, will you marry me?‘s, there are comedians out there writing gems like this one: Hey man, remember the time we ate a whole pair of jeans? Come home so we can do it again!).

Remember, NZS.com lists heaps of other sites where you can enter competitions and snaffle free stuff for yourself. And if you don’t fancy your chances of winning, why not book a flight to Australia to escape these far-from-tropical wintry days?