Hit & Run: Should we all move to New Zealand?

Thirty: that is usually the number given in the context of "New Zealand is like Britain x years ago".

In 1978, when lower air fares finally made travel there affordable, the assertion that New Zealand was living in an earlier era was mildly pejorative. In 2008, it is purely positive.

New Zealand is the closest the UK gets to having a polar opposite. Yet it keeps topping polls as most desirable destination. Last month, it was the turn of Conde Nast Traveller readers. This month, it's a slightly different survey – Alliance & Leicester has crunched the numbers combining quality of life with cost of living – but the result is the same, with New Zealand ahead of Italy and Australia.

"It's like Britain, but with better scenery and weather, and it's got the best wine in the world," says Lyn Hughes, editor-in-chief of Wanderlust magazine. But many nations can claim ascendancy over the UK in terms of countryside, climate and cabernet. New Zealand's supremacy is a result of several other factors.

First, the people have an open, accepting attitude. When I am travelling through New Zealand with nowhere to stay on a particular night, the solution is simple: start hitch-hiking. From experience I know that I will be picked up by people who will, without a second thought, invite me to stay at their home. (Indeed, Hamish Mykura, head of documentaries for Channel 4, goes one better: he took along Keri Hulme's novel The Bone People to read by the roadside, and was picked up by the author herself; she duly obliged with accommodation.)

Next, New Zealand benefits from a sense of space and serenity that few spots in Western Europe can match: it has one-20th of the population of the UK in a nation of about the same size. And, like Britain, it has diversity of landscapes and peoples: Auckland, the largest city, has become deliciously cosmopolitan, while the capital, Wellington, has become a film industry powerhouse, thanks to The Lord of the Rings and Peter Jackson (pictured).

Third, and importantly for so linguistically challenged a nation as Britain, the language is a close approximation to our own.

In an age when you can get to almost anywhere on the planet in under a day, the far side of the world is tantalisingly distant. The two longest air routes from Heathrow are both to Auckland – one via Hong Kong, the other stopping at Los Angeles. But when you need to reassess your priorities, distance can be a good thing. And if you can sort out your life amid superb scenery with a glass of sauvignon blanc in your hand, so much the better.

"Everyone comes back raving about New Zealand," says Stephen Bath, managing director of Bath Travel. "People there have an incredible can-do attitude – and worry much less about health and safety. The old days were so much better." Simon Calder

Waterproof and very weird

What does a girl with a healthy passion for shoes really need during these rain-sodden months? Why, a pair of buttercup-yellow wellington-boot shaped rubber bags to pull on over her feet, like two giant condoms, thus protecting her extremely expensive suede Christian Louboutin peep-toe sandals. Of course. Meet the Shuellas, "umbrellas for your shoes", an American innovation due here next month (£25, kurtgeiger.com). Footwear to make even Mrs Beckham double-take, they come in various colours and sizes. Perverts, praise the opening heavens. Susie Rushton

To live and dye in LA

Nicole Kidman stopped dyeing her grey roots. And then went out in public. Shriek! She doesn't have to do much to provoke a frenzy, does she? But then few celebrity antics whip up the media as much as allowing a little of one's actual self to show through.

Did anyone care when Nicole the redhead became Nicole the not-very-strawberry blonde? No. Because, frankly, it would be a bit disappointing if our celebrities weren't dyed, plumped, frozen, tweaked, enhanced/reduced, reborn (spiritually or physically), styled and Photoshopped. But as soon as we know Nicole is not even blonde or red, she's GREY, that's when the real questions start.

Shun the fact she's just had a baby and is pin-thin; put aside the notion that with those roots, she still looks better than anyone you know. The fact is, we're used to A-listers looking a weird type of perfection, and Nicole Kidman has allowed that façade to slip. Maybe we can pin the dye-ban on the baby? But then, she had perfectly non-grey hair throughout her pregnancy. "She probably just didn't have the time," says Cetera Lamb, a colourist at John Frieda. Lamb has worked with the likes of Kate Winslet, Claudia Schiffer and Cat Deeley, and can't countenance anyone deliberately using grey roots to make a statement. "She's very blonde, and if she's showing a little grey, it doesn't matter: she's got a big flashlight highlighting it." Lamb notes, too, that Nicole's done well in her overall colour choice: "A lot people go blonde to help with the grey when they get older, because if your hair's really dark and you show over a month of regrowth, the contrast is vast."

Hang on – don't the rules say that even when celebrities get older, they must look exactly the same? Is even this in question now? Do something about those roots, Nicole – you're shaking us out of our comfort zone. Clare Dwyer Hogg

This tipple is not for wimps

It is a curious fact that British men who dislike the taste of beer find themselves drawn to the soft flavour of a Caribbean rum with a funny name.

And with good reason: it tastes better. Real Men prefer coconut.

The latest addition to this fast-expanding club is Danny Cipriani, the improbably handsome England rugby international and beau of Kelly Brook, who confessed his passion to Gabby Logan this week.

I am glad to be in his company. Ah, Malibu: light of my life, fire of my tongue. No spirit should taste this good. Sweet without being sickly; deep without being overwhelming. Smooth through the lips and light on the hips. It is, as the inimitable, epochal adverts say, "seriously easy-going". Amol Rajan

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