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NEW ZEALAND and Australia have scored major triumphs in a recent UK readership survey, being named Favourite Country and also Safest Countries in the world.
It was a treble triumph for New Zealand, which was named Favourite Country for the third successive year.
To back this up, it was also named Safest Country in the world, with Australia named as second safest country. And, perhaps surprisingly for its critics, the UK was named third Safest Country.
Readers of the respected UK travel magazine, Wanderlust named New Zealand their Favourite Country with a massive 97.4 per cent, followed by Namibia with 96 per cent and Jordan with 95.8 per cent.
Australia was named second Safest Country, but this was a slight slip, having been named Safest Country in the previous two years.
But Australia carried off a major category when Sir Richard Branson's start-up airline, Virgin Blue was named as World's Best Budget Airline.
This was started just when Australia's second major domestic airline, Ansett collapsed two years ago and Virgin Blue now has 30 per cent of Australia's domestic traffic and is planning to fly to New Zealand early next year.
Australia also scored well in the Favourite City category. Sydney, although visited by most of the respondents in the Wanderlust survey, was named seventh in the Top City award, being equal with Seattle, while Perth, always popular with both UK visitors and migrants, came in at a high ninth, up from 25 just two years ago.
There was very little between the cities, with Sydney gaining 92 per cent and Perth 91.6 per cent. Surprisingly Dubrovnik, on the Croatian coast, and battered in the Yugoslav wars, won the category, with 95.6 per cent.