Where the experts get away from it all

To celebrate guidebook publisher Lonely Planet’s 40th anniversary, writers and contributors recall their most memorable travel moments

nothing, and in the 10 days I spent on it I encountered enough wildlife to last me a lifetime. Jumbos crisscrossed our path, sometimes looming at us from the roadside.

And at night, the roaring of lions kept me awake and large lizards clung to my tent.

After 1 000 miles of wide-eyed pedalling, I was pretty reluctant to get off my bike in rainy Windhoek – I’d go again in a heartbeat.

tourdafrique.com

New Zealand surprise

Alex von Tunzelmann, writer: The guide did a double-take and looked at me more closely. “Von Tunzelmann? Shoot! I reckon everyone around here knows that name.” No one with a name as weird and obscure as mine expects to hear that. Not least 12 000 miles from home, looking up at the snow-dusted peak of Aoraki Mount Cook in New Zealand’s South Island.

We were seeking out locations from The Lord of the Rings movies for a Tolkien-themed story. The fame wasn’t mine. From 1962 to 1966, my dad, Nick Tunzelmann, volunteered for mountain rescue here. It was an eventful job. On one mission, he was buried in an avalanche. His last thought before he blacked out was: “Damn, I haven’t finished my Master’s thesis.” Luckily for the thesis – and, ultimately, for me – he was dug out alive.

The story made the national news. Such fame might usually last for 15 minutes, but in the mountains things move at a glacial pace.

Back in the lodge that night, watching the sunset tinge Aoraki’s white slopes a peachy gold, I sent dad my congratulations. In the Southern Alps, his 15 minutes had lasted half a century.

mtcooknz.com

Spitsbergen dream

Philip Lee Harvey, photographer: I grew up on stories about Ernest Shackleton and all the great polar explorers, and had a really strong mental picture of what the environment they experienced might be