Down Under Submarines is the brand new submarine experience that allows you to go 30 metres below the ocean’s surface. The SUBCAT-30 (which is yellow, naturally) is the first of it’s kind in Australia: a hybrid vessel, that can both dive underwater and travel on top of the water’s surface like a catamaran
Coming down and going back up are arguably the highlights; a special hull above the water allows passengers the unusual, weighted experience of both submersion and refloating.
Cruising along at 30 metres below will make you feel like you’re in a James Bond movie, and you’ll even get to check out the control room.
A heap of super cool, submarine-esque circular windows allows you to see coral, fishies, and anything swimming with the fishies, such as mermaids and deposed Mafia chiefs.
There’s two options: the ‘Submarine Dive Experience’ which has a dive time of around 30 minutes plus 20 minutes surface travel, and the ‘Yellow Submarine Cruise’ will go for an hour at sunset just outside Mooloolaba’s main beach or along sheltered canals, depending on the weather conditions.
They go faster, they’re electric and good for the environment, and they’re very cool: we think Hyper Karting is here to stay.
The new Hyper Karting experience in Sydney is the perfect place to bring your mates, and unleash your inner-Riccardo.
The electric karts are a quieter, fume and grease-free experience in comparison to the old go-karts. Hyper Karts also say their karts are safer and faster, although we’re not sure how to verify that, or if it is even possible to be faster.
Boasting the longest go-kart track in Australia at 410m, the converted car-park space is ideal for a go-kart track. The track is lit up by the karts, giving the impression of a Formula One race held at night.
In December we brought you news of the Airlander 10, which drew ass-related nicknames given it’s similarities to a gigantic rear end.
Much more than just a giant, white, airborne booty, the Airlander 10 airship is potentially the future of travel. Relying on a giant balloon of helium to get it up and into the sky means far less emissions than your regular plane, making an airship a much greener option.
get lost has recent;y ‘caught wind’ of some more news: OceanSky Cruises have set a date for the first flight for the Airlander 10: to the North Pole (or Svalbard) in 2024/25.
The world’s largest aircraft can go quite low and slow, and quietly too, making it ideal for an epic and pristine place full of wildlife..like the North Pole. In fact, it’s probably a lot quieter than a lot of other Gluteus Maximus’ we’ve come across, and it comes with a bar and bedrooms and a James Bond-like lounge.
Check out the video below for an idea of a 36-hour roundtrip to Svalbard might look like:
“It’s a dangerous business Frodo, going out your door.
“You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.”
So said Bilbo Baggins to Frodo…this weekend marks 20 years since the first Lord of the Rings movie was released – can you believe that?
And while CGI might have improved since then, New Zealand’s extraordinary Queenstown and Fiordland landscapes that featured in the films are still as majestic as they always were.
To celebrate the 20th birthday, we’ve counted down the top five LOTR experiences to be had across the ditch:
Chill out in Hobbiton – Hamilton Waikato.
Walk the charming paths and green hills of The Shire, grab a pint at The Green Dragon Inn, get a photo in front of a hobbit hole and dance under the Party Tree like it’s your Eleventy-First birthday. You can also go behind the scenes tales from the filming, and feast like a hobbit on the Evening Banquet tour.
Walk around goblins, elves, orcs and Gollums at the Wellington-based studio that created the costumes for LOTR and The Hobbit. It’s pretty cool being up close to the real wizardry (move over Gandalf) behind filmmaking creativity and discovering the people, processes and props that bring these worlds to life.
The makers of the one ring to rule them all actually made quite a lot of rings to rule them all. Jens Hansen submitted 15 prototypes in a variety of weights and finishes, and from this extensive collection, the final movie ring design was selected. More than 40 variations were used in the filming of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies. One original ring is on display and for true fans, you can actually take home your very own ‘precious’ replica. Elvish engraving optional!
Soar into the air and over the famously majestic Queenstown and Fiordland landscapes that featured in the films, over the Shotover River gorge recognisable as the Ford of Bruinen as well as Isengard, Lothlorien and Dimrill Dale. Land high on a glacier alongside the Misty Mountains and get a sense of what it might be like to cross The Redhorn Pass.
Off-road advenutre meets Middle-earth magic as the films come to life on location around the dramatic scenery of Queenstown. Witness from a car the real life locations of the battle of the Wargs, Argonath (Pillars of the Kings), the Forrest of Lothlorien, and the loss of The One Ring at Gladden Fields.
Fans of the realm will be more excited than Tyrone Lannister when he was named Hand of the Queen at the news a tour of the Linen Mill Studios in Banbridge, Northern Ireland is on it’s way in early-2022.
And not just any tour – HBO have poured $45 million into the tour, promising to transport fans into the very heart of Westeros’, promising to bring ‘visitors closer to the Seven Kingdoms than ever before’.
Theres 110,000-square-feet worth of interactive experience which will allow fans to explore a vast array of original sets, costumes, props and set pieces, with the aim of bringing visitors closer to the Seven Kingdoms than ever before.
Fans can step inside the iconic Great Hall at Winterfell where Jon Snow was proclaimed the “King in the North,”
It doesn’t open until February-2022, and there’s not a heap of info available. But you can bet we’ll be going.
Except for maybe eating sushi from a vending machine in Tokyo while dressed as Toad and about to visit a sumo wrestling bout, visiting a ryokan is about the most Japanese thing you can do.
Ryokans are more than just a place to sleep – they’re an opportunity to get a taste of traditional Japanese life and hospitality – think tatami floors, futon beds local cuisine and Japanese-style baths called onsens.
Onsens are geothermal springs where people go to recuperate and rejuvenate. They are almost always clothing not optional – yep, you go into these absolutely starkers.
This might feel weird to begin with, but becomes pretty normal after about five minutes (which is probably weirder in itself).
Magoroku Ryokan in Akita is set among the mountains, and might be one of the most picturesque places to chill out at in the country. In wintertime, snow surrounds the outdoor hot spas.
It can be tricky getting off the beaten track in Japan, but Akita is certainly just that. It’s in the far north-west of the country, so you don’t have to deal with the hordes of crowds that come with being further south, which in turn means not dealing with hordes of naked people when you’re in the onsen.
Filmmaker Wes Anderson is the man. When the man designs a luxury train carriage, there’s only one thing to do: buy a ticket on that train, wherever it’s headed.
The train appears to have come straight from the set of The Grand Budapest Hotel. Pastel pink and emerald green dominate the colour scheme, with intricate marquetry, art nouveau-style wooden panels and trippy geometric furnishings giving the carriage an elaborate crossover style that sits somewhere between Art Deco and stoner.
It’s the famous Belmond British Pullman train, the luxury chugga-chugga-chugga-chugga which operates out of London’s Victoria Station. Day trip tickets start at around £400 per person.
Texan Anderson doesn’t fly, preferring to catch the train where he can. Combined with his other skills, it means there probably isn’t anyone on earth more perfect man to design the interior of a train.
The train, for what it’s worth, travels from London to the Kent countryside, and back again. Not that that’s important.
The human race is obsessed with drones at the moment, and for good reason: they’re fricking awesome.
The DJI Mavic 3 has just been released, and drone experts (doctors of the drone, droneis considered the best that exists. Seriously, this thing is super cool.
Previous versions of the Mavic have been the gold standard for drones for a few years, and there’s a hype around this one that appears to be justified, judging from the footage below.
You can fly these for up to 46 minutes, which is 15 longer than any previous Mavic. There’s a couple of cameras in there, for different uses, but it’s the 5k video quality that you come for – we’re talking crystal clear here.
It’s got a price tag to match the hype but with Black Friday coming up, you might be able to find a deal somewhere…and even if you don’t it’s worth it.
Wonderdome is, as you can probably guess, a big dome.
Inside the dome is where the magic is: the largest 360-degree immersive cinema experience ever to be seen in Australia.
Think ‘virtual reality’ without the goggles.
It’s been to Burning Man, Coachella, and now it’s at the Entertainment Quarter in Sydney. It’s probably the hottest cinema experience in the world at the moment.
Reclining on a beanbag fit for a king, you’ll immerse yourself into watch made-for-this-experience films; Liam Neeson narrates a documentary about the state of the global climate, or you can listen to David Attenborough talk to us about dinosaurs. There’s Carriberrie, celebrating Indigenous dance and song, and an immersive exploration of some of Australia’s beautiful but under-threat coral reefs.
The films take up every corner of the dome, which is 21 metres in circumference. And you’ll probably take up every second of your catch up with friends telling them about it.
The City Climb at Edge opened this week in New York City, an experience that is totally dependent on your opinion of heights.
The Edge is a 30 metre platform suspended 100 stories in the air, giving 360 degree views out over the Big Apple. It’s the highest outdoor deck in the Western Hemisphere.
For absolute thrill seekers, you can now do the City Climb: Scale the outside of the adjacent skyscraper and lean out over the edge, with nothing but 1200 feet of air beneath you.
This is either epic or a “get absolutely f****ed” experience….or a little bit of both.
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