Queues at airport check-in gates could be a thing of the past after Air New Zealand revealed a $30 million revamp of its domestic terminals. The national carrier announced changes to its check-in procedures for domestic flights around the country, beginning in Auckland.

From next week Air New Zealand will do away with the old check-in counters and introduce do-it-yourself kiosks, where passengers can print off their own bag tags and take their luggage to the bag drop themselves.

Brett from the cranky flier- blog writes about the new and improved check-in:

The idea is to keep people flowing through the system instead of creating dead-ends at ticket counters.

Passengers can check-in via mobile phone, but frequent fliers will have another option. . . RFID tags. The airline is planning on giving RFID tags to frequent fliers to stick on the back of their mobile phones (or anywhere else they so desire). They will be able to just head straight to the gate if they have no bags and scan their phone as they board. If they have a bag, they can scan it at the kiosk at check-in. A small receipt will print out for their records.

Good luck for all of you planing to fly with the new Air New Zealand .

Australia is one of the most popular travel destinations in the world. To visit Australia for a holiday, to see family and friends or to conduct a short business trip, you will need a valid short travel entry permit. There are a number of different visitor visa types, depending on the purpose of your visit and how long you need to stay.

The writer of the just wandering-blog gives us great advices on how to apply for an Australian tourist visa.

I am not a visa officer, nor am I migration agent. I am in no way affiliated with the Australian Embassy Manila nor with the Australian government. This post comes from my experience with preparing and submitting visa applications for family members and for myself. This is also written mainly for Filipinos applying for an Australian visa within the Philippines.

Green travels offers us great tip on how to save money on our trips around the globe, like how to your trip the right way so you wont be charged with cancellations fees or how to pack you luggage light to minimize baggage fees. I thought you might like to read more about it.

Watch for Waste - Millions of tickets go unused, even though most non-refundable fares are valid for travel for up to a year. While there may be change fees, you can still save money by not letting these unused tickets go to waste. Stay Together, Save Together - If you are arriving on different flights than your co-workers, friends or family, plan ahead to arrive around the same time and meet at an airport lounge. That way you can travel to the hotel together and save the cost of multiple taxis or shuttle services.

Lucy is the oldest, most complete, and best preserved adult fossil of any erect-walking human ancestor. The 1974 discovery of this famous 3.2 million-year-old hominid yielded a new species.

Ethiopia is rich in cultural heritage,  “Lucy’s Legacy” introduces you to the incredible five million-year history of this fascinating country, known as the Cradle of Mankind.

You don’t get to meet Lucy right away. First, you wander through a gorgeous collection of Ethiopian artifacts that give you some sense of context for Lucy’s homeland. We loved this unexpected part of the exhibit - the items on display are stunners, and it’s a delight to be exposed to a culture so fascinating and a land so exotic. It only took until we reached the second or third room of objects for me to say this: “We need to go to Ethiopia.”

You can read more about the field trip to the Pacific Science Center in Seattle in the article posted on Nerd’s Eye View-blog.

Creative tourism invented by UNESCO means that there are cities called creative cities that the travelers in those cities can take an active part in the community, it give the traveler an authentic experience of the place and heritage of the people who live there.

Sally Moore the author of two guidebooks and member of the Authors Society of American Travel Writers, write in her blog about the conference on creative tourism held in Santa Fe earlier this month.

I was able to attend the Wednesday session, and in the following days, I will discuss our roundtable on Gastronomy, which attracted delegates from Japan, France, Santiago De Compostela, Barcelona, Bologna, as well as several of us New Mexicans.

to read her full review about the conference click here.