Our Story
A beat-up old car, a few dollars in the pocket and a sense of adventure. In 1972 that’s all Tony and Maureen Wheeler needed for the trip of a lifetime – across Europe and Asia overland to Australia. It took several months, and at the end – broke but inspired – they sat at their kitchen table writing and stapling together their first travel guide, Across Asia on the Cheap. Within a week they’d sold 1500 copies. Lonely Planet was born.
Today, Lonely Planet has offices in Melbourne, London and Oakland, with more than 600 staff and writers. We share Tony’s belief that ‘a great guidebook should do three things: inform, educate and amuse’.
OUR WRITERS
Charles Rawlings-Way
Coordinating Author, Taranaki & Whanganui, Rotorua & the Bay of Plenty, The East Coast English by birth, Australian by chance, All Blacks fan by choice: Charles’ early understanding of Aotearoa was less than comprehensive (sheep, mountains, sheep on mountains...). He realised there was more to it when a wandering uncle returned with a faux-jade tiki in 1981. He wore it with pride until he saw the NZ cricket team’s beige uniforms in 1982... Mt Taranaki’s snowy summit, Napier’s art-deco deliverance and Whanganui’s raffish charm have helped him forgive: he’s once again smitten with the country’s phantasmal landscapes, disarming locals, and determination to sculpt its own political and indigenous destiny. Charles also wrote the Plan Your Trip section, and the Directory and Transport chapters.
Brett Atkinson
Auckland, Bay of Islands & Northland, Waikato & Coromandel Peninsula Resident in Auckland, Brett leapt at the chance to research his home town for this edition. Highlights include exploring the city’s emerging restaurant scene around Wynyard Quarter, and journeying to the diverse islands of the Hauraki Gulf. Excursions further afield to Northland and Coromandel echoed family holidays in an earlier century. Brett’s contributed to Lonely Planet guidebooks spanning Europe, Asia and the Pacific, and covered almost 50 countries as a food and travel writer. See www.brett-atkinson.net for his latest travels.
Sarah Bennett & Lee Slater
Taupo & the Central Plateau, Wellington Region, Marlborough & Nelson, The West Coast, Fiordland & Southland Lee and Sarah live in Wellington, but spend many months on the road each year in their small campervan, boots on board, mountain bikes on the back. Specialists in ‘soft-core adventure’ (tramping without crampons), they re-imagine their journeys into magazine features, and guidebooks including Lonely Planet’s Hiking & Tramping in New Zealand, four editions of New Zealand , as well as The New Zealand Tramper’s Handbook and Let’s Go Camping . Read more at www.bennettandslater.co.nz and follow on Twitter @BennettnSlater. Sarah and Lee also wrote the New Zealand Today chapter.
Published by Lonely Planet Publications Pty Ltd
ABN 36 005 607 983
17th edition – August 2014
ISBN 978 1 74360 225 6
© Lonely Planet 2014 Photographs © as indicated 2014
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in China
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