October's Regional & Events Award goes to...

Whitianga, Mercury Bay

The site is dedicated to showing people what Whitianga has to offer and relies on listings from locals to provide the information required. Despite the enormity of the task, the site offers a broad range of information and is only sometimes found lacking. Where this is the case however, the site displays blank pages. We wondered if it might be preferable to remove the category from the menu altogether. French, German and Italian languages are all provided for and there's an excellent photo gallery. Good instruction about "How to get there?" and a currency calculator show good insite into visitor needs although, it might be useful if the currency calculator could be accessed from the same page as the listings. Bookings are handled via email to the visitor centre, or by following a link to the NZ host national booking system however the latter method involves having to look up the required service again once you get there. Even then the proceedure seems complicated. A secure booking facility within the site would be a welcome addition These suggestions however, do not alter the fact that this is a very good regional site which puts the efforts of many larger regions, both nationally and internationally, to shame.

© 1998 Discover New Zealand Magazine