In New Zealand, you can stay at a vineyard overnight in a stationary motorhome that sleeps two (double bed), with facilities en suite, as offered by the motorhome company Maui (phone 011 800 200 80 801).
Vineyards are located on the North Island at Mercury Bay (Coromandel Peninsula, near Auckland), the Linden Estate (on the coast near Napier) and Coney Wines (near Wellington) and in central South Island at Carrick Wines.
The new Red Star Line Museum (Montevideostraat 3, 2000 Antwerp, Belgium; phone +32 3 298 27 70), located in the historic warehouses of the shipping company in Antwerp, Belgium, opened on Sept. 28.
Mirroring the Ellis Island story, the museum brings to life the journey of more than two million people who emigrated via Antwerp to New York, amongst them iconic passengers such as Irving Berlin and Albert Einstein.
The 3-day 2014 Rainforest World Music Festival takes place June 20-22 in the Sarawak Cultural Village in Borneo, Malaysia.
The 2013 festival featured concerts from 10 a.m. to midnight each day, with 21 groups performing, including local folk singing groups and groups from Jamaica, Korea, China, Australia and Japan. Throughout the festival, talks were given and workshops were offered in singing, dance, ethnomusicology and music — everything from gamelan playing to Irish dance.
To celebrate the 150th birthday of Richard Strauss, the Gewandhaus Orchestra (Gewandhaus ticket hotline +49 341 1270 280) in Leipzig, Germany, will perform a series of Strauss works from April 3, 2014, until the special birthday concert on June 11.
The Leipzig Opera will perform the Strauss operas “Elektra,” “The Knight of the Rose” and “The Woman Without a Shadow.” Contact the Gewandhaus and the Leipzig Opera (Opera ticket hotline +49 0 341 12 61 261).
Addressing medical care on the front during the First World War through diaries, letters, literature, photographs and objects, the exhibition “War and Trauma — Medical Care in WWI” will be on display in the In Flanders Fields Museum (Lakenhallen - Grote Markt 34, B-8900 Ieper, Belgium; phone 32 057 239 220) in Ypres, Belgium, Nov. 11, 2013, to June 30, 2014.
On select 2013-2014 “Caribbean Baseball Cruises” with MSC Cruises (Fort Lauderdale, FL; 877/665-4655), passengers will interact with former baseball stars like Cincinnati Reds All-Star Ken Griffey, Sr. (Jan. 12, 2014), and American League home-run king Gorman Thomas (May 10) in a variety of events, including question-and-answer sessions, free autograph sessions, player-hosted trivia games and pitching, hitting and defense strategy clinics.
Panama’s new BioMuseo, aka Museum of Biodiversity [website in Spanish only], is scheduled to open in January 2014. The 43,000-square-foot museum, designed by Frank Gehry, will include eight display galleries highlighting Panama’s flora and fauna, from the emergence of the Isthmus of Panama 3,000,000 years ago to the present day.
The website Special Needs at Sea (800/513-4515 or 954/585-0575) now posts the accessibility features of the ships of four cruise lines: Azamara Club Cruises, Celebrity Cruises, Norwegian Cruise Line and Royal Caribbean International.
Special Needs Group, Inc., plans to add one cruise line per month to the portal until all ships used in the North American market that have features for the mobility limited have been included.
The app Waterkeeper Swim Guide, available on iOS and Android devices, has data on many beaches in Canada, Mexico and the United States. The app detects the user’s location and shows which beaches are safe to swim in, accessing recent data from government agencies and local Waterkeeper Alliance chapters. The data is also available online at www.theswimguide.org.
In the port of Bluff, near Invercargill on New Zealand’s South Island, the Bluff Oyster & Food Festival (phone 03 212 8889) will be held May 24, 2014, to celebrate the Bluff oyster, a local delicacy. Tickets cost $25 each and can be purchased in advance through Ticket Direct New Zealand (phone 0800 484 2538).