Auckland writer and Timaru photographer scoop the top prizes at the Cathay Pacific Travel Media Awards

Auckland’s Charles Anderson won the Cathay Pacific Travel Writer of the Year Award and Timaru’s Natasha Martin took the Cathay Pacific Travel Photographer of the Year Award, presented tonight at the Travel Media Awards Gala Dinner at the Heritage Auckland’s Grand Tearoom.

Wellington author Peter Riordan won the Travcom Travel Book of the Year Award for Gods of the Stones – Travels in the Middle East (David Bateman Publishing).

The Cathay Pacific Travel Media and Travel Book awards are organised by Travcom (New Zealand Travel Communicators) to celebrate excellence in travel writing and photography.

Anderson took top spot with his story Horse Sense published in NZ Life and Leisure magazine. Anderson is an Auckland-based writer currently working for the Sunday Star Times. He has travelled extensively through Indonesia, India, South America and Africa. His writing and photography have been published in magazines and newspapers throughout the country. Last year he was named junior reporter of the year at the Canon Media Awards and has been a finalist in the junior feature writing category two years in a row.

“Travel writing should be about more than the personal experience of being in a place,' said chief writing judge Chris Moss, editor of Time Out magazine's travel section and a regular contributor to the Daily Telegraph. 'The best travel journalism also teaches something, takes the reader on an inner journey, and focuses on a theme, idea or area in a fresh way - and it must also be well-written. Charles Anderson's 'Horse Sense' took me back to a place I have visited and showed me its people, its culture, its economy and its Horse Fair in an original and engaging way. A deeply enjoyable read and a deserved winner in a year in which there were several very strong submissions.”

Chris Moss judged all travel writing categories excluding the New Travel Writer of the Year award, which was judged by Susan Buckland. She is an award-winning travel writer whose stories and photographs are published in New Zealand and overseas. The winner of the AA Directions New Travel Writer of the Year Award was David Lillie with An Icy Embrace.

The winner of Cathay Pacific Travel Photographer of the Year Award is Natasha Martin, a photographer for the Timaru Herald. She went on a Rotary Group Study Exchange trip to India last year where she shot the portfolio that won her the overall award.

The photography awards were judged by: Auckland photographer Julia Thorne, a three-decade survivor of the freelance photography and journalism world and one of the early instigators of the Travcom Photography Awards; Gareth Eyres, freelance editorial and travel photographer, and twice previous winner of the Cathay Pacific Travel Photographer of the Year Award; and Bela Trussell-Cullen, a veteran magazine designer and art director, who has worked for many years on Metro, North & South and is currently art director of New Idea magazine.

“As always the entries that most moved judges were those that allowed us to connect with the subject, beyond mere observation,” Thorne says. “It may sound a little presumptuous that a travelling photographer could truly engage with their subject in fleeting moments, but that’s what the craft of making powerful images requires beyond technique, a sensitivity and empathy for other human beings, and the world around us.”
Anderson and Martin have each won a trip for two to Rome travelling with Cathay Pacific plus $500 towards travel expenses and a 10 or 11 day Mediterranean cruise (depending on date chosen), provided by Celebrity Cruises on Celebrity Equinox, departing from Rome and sailing to destinations in Italy, the Greek Islands and Turkey.

Wellington author Peter Riordan won the top prize at the tenth annual Travcom Travel Book of the Year Award for Gods of the Stones – Travels in the Middle East (David Bateman Publishing). Christchurch writer Pat Deavoll received a Highly Commended certificate for Wind from a Distant Summit (Craig Potton Publishing).

The Travcom Travel Book of the Year Award was judged by: writer, editor, book promoter, and teacher Dorothy Vinicombe; Paul Hewlett, a writer and public relations consultant from Auckland and a member of the Board of New Zealand Book Month; and Finlay Macdonald, journalist, broadcaster, former editor of the New Zealand Listener and former commissioning editor with Penguin New Zealand.

“The book entries were a diverse selection, from an ebook to a masterful history of New Zealand train journeys and various intimate self-published travel memoirs,” said chief judge Dorothy Vinicombe. “The best of these were distinguished by their ambition to rise above the mere retelling of a journey, to develop a theme and offer a more reflective account of what it means to travel, and to be a traveller. All of the entrants can be proud of what they have achieved, but our choice of winner was clear and unanimous.”

“Peter Riordan’s Gods of the Stones – Travels in the Middle East stood out from the rest,” added Vinicombe. “It provides a fascinating contemporary insight to the places and societies in which many stories from the New Testament are set. Above all the book contains many instances of fine writing.”

Riordan has been a previous runner-up of this award in 2007, with his book Strangers in My Sleeper.

The awards were hosted by the delightful Te Radar (Andrew J Lumsden), an award winning satirist, documentary maker, writer, stage and screen director, failed gardener, television presenter and amateur historian.

WINNERS:

Cathay Pacific Travel Writer of the Year (in association with Royal Caribbean’s Celebrity Cruises)
Winner: Charles Anderson
Runner Up: Pamela Wade

Auckland Airport Award for the Best Magazine Travel Story
Winner: Charles Anderson
For Horse Sense
Published in NZ Life & Leisure
July-August 2011

Runner up: Joanna Wane
For China’s Town
Published in North & South, October 2011

Heritage Boutique Collection Award for the Best Newspaper Travel Story
Winner: Greg Dixon
For Between a Rock and ….
Published in New Zealand Herald, March 2011
Runner up: Pamela Wade
For Blend of Chaos and Beauty
Published in the Dominion Post, March 2011

Heritage Hotels Award for the Best Travel Story about New Zealand
Winner: Mike White
For West Coast Dreaming
Published in North & South, December 2011

Runner up: David Burton
For Vine Dining
Published in Cuisine, November 2011

Interislander Award for the Best Story about a Journey
Winner: Jill Worrall
For Life on African Rail
Published in the Timaru Herald September 2011

Runner Up: Ewan McDonald
For Homeward Bound
Published in My Generation, New Zealand Herald June 2011

British High Commission and Tourism Ireland Award for the Best Travel Story about Britain and/or Ireland
Winner: Pamela Wade
For Crystal Clear in Waterford
Published in The Press, October 2011

Runner Up: Wendy Dunlop
For The Winsome Ways of Norfolk
Published in Metropol, December 2011

NZ Maori Tourism Award for the Best Travel Story about a Maori Tourism Experience
Winner: Whare Akuhata
For Bush, Boys and Adrenalin
Published in Tu Mai magazine
September/October 2011

Runner Up: David Burton
For Pavlovas and Steam
Published in Cuisine, March 2009

AA Directions Magazine Award for the Best New Travel Writer
Winner: David Lillie
For An Icy Embrace

Runner Up: Callum Valentine
For Cultural Crossfire

Highly Commended: Neil McClure
For Walking at Makara

Magnolia Wilson
For Awash with Fear in South Korea

Matthew Shand
The New Old Markets

Travcom Travel book of the Year Award
Winner: Peter Riordan
For Gods of the Stones – Travels in the Middle East
Published by David Bateman
Highly Commended: Pat Deavoll
For Wind from a Distant Summit
Published by Craig Potton Publishing

Cathay Pacific Travel Photographer of the Year (in association with Royal Caribbean’s Celebrity Cruises)
Winner: Natasha Martin
Runner Up: Amos Chapple

Auckland Airport Award for the Best Travel Image taken in New Zealand Winner: Amos Chapple
For his image published in Te Araroa,
A Walking Guide, November 2011
(A hiker at the head of Te Araroa)

Runner Up: Amos Chapple
For his image published in North & South,
August 2011
(Successful hunters, Te Hapua, Far North)

FUJIFILM Award for the Best Travel Image taken Outside New Zealand
Winner: Amos Chapple
For his image published in the Guardian (UK) September 2011
(Tree root bridge, Nongriat, north eastern India)

Runner Up: Natasha Martin
For her image published in the Timaru Herald July 2011
(Cow in Porbander, Gujarat, India)

Runner Up: Liz Light
For her image published in Let’s Travel March 2011
(Fishing, Milne Bay, Papua New Guinea)

Air Vanuatu & Mangoes Resort Award for the Best Series of Travel Images
Winner: Natasha Martin
For her series of images which appeared in the Timaru Herald, July 2011
(Porbander, Gujarat, India)

Runner Up: Amos Chapple
For his series of images which appeared in the New Zealand Herald, September 2011
(Tree root bridge, Nongriat, north eastern India)

Runner Up: Grant Sheehan
For his series of images which appeared in his book “Ghosts in the Landscape” published in 2011, Structures in the New Zealand Landscape

AA Directions Magazine Award for the Best Travel Image with People
Winner: Tessa Chrisp
For her image published NZ House & Garden, November 2011
(Maskelyn Island, Vanuatu)

Runner Up: Natasha Martin
Published in the Timaru Herald, July 2011
(Slum housing, Rajkot, Gujarat, India)

NZ Maori Tourism Award for the Best Travel Image Capturing the Essence of Maori
Winner: Aaron Smale
Published in New Zealand Geographic, February 2009
(Temple gates, Ratana Pa)

Runner Up: James Heremaia
Published in People of the Land, 2010
(Te Tokanganui-a noho Marae, Te Kuiti)

Runner Up: Mike White
Published in North & South, September 2011
(Tom Teika in Granity)

Epson Award for the Best Unpublished Travel Image
Winner: Mike Langford
(Horse carts in Bagan, central Myanmar)

Runner Up: Brendon O’Hagan
(Water buffalo in Cambodia)

Runner Up: Jackie Ranken
(U Bein Bridge, Amarapura, Myanmar)