An appreciative “audience” makes i-to-i volunteering all the more rewarding. This picture was taken during soccer practice on a Kenya program
An Australian travel company which specialises in short-term volunteer placements in Asia, Africa and Latin America needs, what else, more volunteers!
Aptly titled “i-to-i'', the company seeks out team challenges in which single travellers or groups of friends or people of like-mind can join a volunteer community project team somewhere in the developing world. The challenge is to complete the assigned project in two weeks flat!
i-to-i ensures placements are only allocated where they are “safe, supported and sustainable”.
General manager Janine Phillips explains: “While our other projects around the world are on-going, we recognise that there are a lot of people who can only take two weeks holiday, but who really want to make a visible, tangible difference in a volunteer capacity.
“We've consulted with local communities and created exciting, short-term projects that will really make a difference. By the time the volunteer leaves, the community will have the benefit of a finished project.
“The Challenges are a fun, affordable and rewarding team experience for the young and the young at heart.”
They are currently recruiting up to 30 volunteers for a South Africa Challenge due for an April launch. There are others listed for May, July and September.
“Volunteers will gain an insight into life in South Africa's townships while getting their hands dirty renovating a nursery school near Cape Town,” Phillips promised.
This Challenge is to transform a dilapidated school into a functional, attractive centre of education using painting, building and decorating skills.
The travel company provides all the necessary materials and participants are not required to have building or decorating experience.
Volunteers will experience the beauty, diversity and rich cultural mix of South Africa through meeting and working with the local people, especially children.
You can sign up as an individual or with a group of friends, joining with other volunteers from around the world to tackle the Challenge.
The South Africa Team Challenge costs $2285 per person for two weeks, beginning in Cape Town.
i-to-i is also launching challenges in Costa Rica, Ecuador and India which include building, renovating, creating wilderness trails and conservation work.
For further information, visit www.i-to-i.com or call 1300 656 351.
Recycled footwear will give porters a lift
This is not your usual “travel story” but for anyone who has been to Papua New Guinea, or anyone who is thinking about making this most unforgettable of trips, it is worth telling.
Off-the-beaten-track, travel gear icon Paddy Pallin is giving trekkers and other travellers 20 per cent off new footwear in exchange for their old boots and shoes which will be “re-gifted” to porters in PNG.
Big deal? Well, as anyone who has done or tried to do the Kokoda Track will testify, having the right footwear (or having any footwear at all) is a bonus. Even more leisurely shore trips from a Sepik River cruise adventure are better undertaken with something sturdier than ubiquitous trainers.
In conjunction with New Guinea-based trekking company, South Sea Horizons, Pallin's trade-in program will see used boots and shoes sent to International Porters Progress, an organisation set up to protect porters' rights on the famous Kokoda and Larkforce trails.
Many of the porters working in PNG are poor villagers with little or no access to good footwear, having to lug their heavy loads barefoot on steep and muddy tracks.
From February 2-22 this year, Pallin outlets will knock the 20 per cent off all footwear in their stores in exchange for pre-loved boots and shoes.
What might, to the average well-heeled Australian, be a bit past it, will be a godsend for the folk in PNG. South Sea Horizons will look after shipping and distribution of the footwear to grateful new owners in one of the world's last great frontiers.
For full details visit www.paddypallin.com.au or drop in at your nearest outlet.
Indirect but still up there
And Tahiti still sounds “nice'' . . . and inexpensive
Much awarded Air Tahiti Nui will suspend direct flights between Sydney and Papeete, Tahiti, from April until October this year but plans to offer three weekly flights from Sydney via Auckland, with the trans-Tasman sectors operated by code share partner Qantas.
This means you will still get the Air Tahiti Nui experience between Auckland and Papeete.
Regional director for the airline Craig Lee said the move had been forced by the global economic crisis but said the company would rebook anyone affected to code share flights via Auckland.
Tahiti has steadily built up inbound tourist business from Australia, spearheaded by the airline offering deals which convinced sceptical Aussies Tahiti was not the “too far, took dea” destination once believed.
For more information, contact Air Tahiti Nui on 1300 732 415 or visit www.airtahitinui.com.au
None of this affects the Air Tahiti Nui/Tahiti Travel Connection offering of an escape to idyllic Moorea.
You can escape to Tahiti's island of Moorea for a week of sheer relaxation on a “Rejuvenate in Paradise" package priced from $2804 pp twin share ex-Sydney, taxes included.
This includes return economy class travel, all land and sea transfers, five nights at the Intercontinental Resort Moorea with daily breakfast, and two more nights at the Intercontinental Resort Tahiti. There's even a soothing “Paufifi” traditional massage for two.
Lee reckons - and few would argue - there could be no better way to start the year than with a relaxing and rejuvenating holiday on some of the world's most beautiful beaches with great cuisine and fine French wines.
It is only available until February 28, however, so be quick.
Call Tahiti Travel Connection on 1300 858 305.
Discounts extended
Forget the floods, you'll be on the water anyway with Fiji's Blue Lagoon Cruises latest discounted holiday program.
The award-winning small ship cruise operator has extended a 15 per cent discount plus free cabin upgrade offer on all its Club and Gold Club Yasawa Island cruises booked between now and February 28.
You can travel any time up to August 31 on any of their three and four-day Club Cruises or the four and seven-day Gold Club programs.
With the discount, a three-day/two-night Club Cruise starts at $479pp twin share. All meals and cruise activities like shore excursions and snorkeling safaris, fish feeding, fishing and glass bottom boating, are included.
For culturally minded visitors, they also include a traditional lovo feast, visits to more remote villages, the inevitable kava ceremony and a day at Blue Lagoon's private island of Nanuya Lailai.
Your international airfare is extra and there is a daily fuel surcharge of 25 Fijian dollars.
For cruise reservations telephone Blue Lagoon Cruises in Lautoka, Fiji, on +679 666 1622, facsimile +679 666 4098 or by email to reservations@blc.com.fj | 
