London baby, yeah!
Te Whanganui a Tara - An estimated 75,000 Kiwis live in London and even more New Zealand tourists visited the city every year, before covid.
Now that culture and hospitality sectors are reopening safely, London is back to doing what it does best: entertaining.
There’s never been a better time to make a trip to one of London’s famous galleries, museums, restaurants, pubs or famous sites such as Buck House, Piccadilly Circus, Madam Tussauds, the West End, Covent Garden, Lord’s, Abbey Road, Twickenham and the London Eye.
With restricted international travel, people visiting London can make the most of a once in a lifetime smaller crowds, shorter queues and reduced waiting times for popular restaurants, theatres and pub meals.
London mayor Sadiq Khan has wasted very little time since being re-elected as mayor a couple of weeks ago to announce London’s biggest-ever tourism campaign.
Love them or hate them, tourists are a vital part of ensuring the capital remains the greatest city on Earth, with the excitement and (let’s be honest here) the money they bring helping to fuel our city. The new campaign, Let’s Do London is a whirlwind of culture, food, and art, and will run for a year.
The £6 million campaign aims to unite the capital’s world-leading hospitality, culture, nightlife and retail venues to promote all that London has to offer.
Incidentally, Khan is dead against immigration restrictions hampering New Zealanders' ability to live and work long-term in the United Kingdom. He wants New Zealanders to continue to come to London.
The UK allows young New Zealanders to visit for up to two years, it is harder to stay in the UK longer term.
Lisa was born in Auckland at the start of the 1970s, living in a small campsite community on the North Shore called Browns Bay. She spent a significant part of her life with her grandparents, often hanging out at the beaches. Lisa has many happy memories from those days at Browns Bay beach, where fish were plentiful on the point and the ocean was rich in seaweed. She played in the water for hours, going home totally “sun-kissed.” “An adorable time to grow up,” Lisa tells me.
Lisa enjoyed many sports; she was a keen tennis player and netballer, playing in the top teams for her age right up until the family moved to Wellington. Lisa was fifteen years old, which unfortunately marked the end of her sporting career. Local teams were well established in Wellington, and her attention was drawn elsewhere.