Christchurch is our most exciting city: you just need to know where to look.
If you’re looking for a warm welcome on your domestic travels, it seems you best head to Canterbury – the only New Zealand destination to feature in a new ranking of the most welcoming regions in the world. Canterbury came in at number five on Booking.com’s list of the ten “most welcoming regions on Earth” based on more than 130 million guest reviews of properties listed on the site.
Brook Sabin/Stuff
Stuff travel journalist Brook Sabin enjoying the hospitality at Hot Tubs Omarama. Listed regions had the highest share of winners in the accommodation giant’s 2021 Traveller Review Awards, which recognise properties with the highest average guest scores between August 1, 2018 and November 30, 2020.
STACY SQUIRES/Stuff
Anne-Marie Jones, pictured with her son Chase, 6, says her phone can t scan QR codes and many businesses have got rid of pen and paper registers.
Low-income and elderly communities are being forgotten about when it comes to contact tracing, vulnerable Kiwis say. Scanning a QR code with New Zealand’s Covid Tracer app requires a smartphone newer than Android 6.0 or an iPhone with IOS 11, and many businesses are relying on this as the only method to track people s movement under Ministry of Health guidelines. Some lower-income and elderly Kiwis do not have smartphones, and businesses are not required to provide alternatives like a sign-in sheet unless alert level 2 or higher is in place.