In Dubai, Peter Calder looks on enviously as the well-heeled browse among $12,000 bottles of wine.

Thirty years after he fell in love with Japan, author Edmund de Waal returns to take his family on an intense tour of its urban and rural charms.

Gayle Dickson stays at The Chedi Muscat, Oman.

Weird adventures with mushrooms and a winery visit are unexpected surprises for Pamela Wade in Thailand.

An absent millionaire's place can be your home away from home, writes Tamara McLean.

On the island of Maafushivaru, in the Maldives, Sam Wylie-Harris and her husband savour a holiday befitting a king and queen.

Turkey's largest city is a place of grandeur and contradiction, writes Nicola Lamb.

Twenty-six years ago, Nicholas Jones' father tested his youthful stamina on the mountainsides of Nepal. Recently, he returned to the roof of the world with his sons to relive his trekking adventure.

Alex Robertson makes a moonlight trek up a sacred mountain to experience its magnificent view of the rising sun.

"This pilot decided to land in a narrow river without buildings because there is a residential area nearby. He did all he could do."

Katelyn Catanzariti enjoys Thailand far more now than she did as a backpacker.

Malaysian officials finally call disappearance of the aircraft an "accident". But this means that there are many things we will - probably - never know.

In the midst of one of the world's greatest metropolises, Sarah MacDonald goes on a quest for the ultimate urban sanctuary - Tokyo's natural hot spring.

The hunt for the man-eating Komodo, writes Rachel Williams, makes for one heart-stopping cruise excursion.

Vo Van Duong's bamboo and coconut leaf house looks much like others deep in Vietnam's Mekong Delta.

So far, a good number of Chinese families have been less than enthusiastic about the partial relaxation of the one-child policy. Why?

Luxury meets location at Singapore's Four Seasons, as Grant Bradley discovers.

Singapore thrives on its fascinating mix of races and customs, writes Tori Mayo.

AirAsia crash victim's family learned of their loved one's fate after being sent a selfie he featured in, taken on board flight QZ8501 as it prepared for takeoff.

The first official Indonesian report on the AirAsia crash says the accident was caused by "icing" that damaged the plane's engines - a finding experts immediately doubted.

The richest people on Earth got richer in 2014, adding US$92 billion ($118 billion) to their collective fortune in the face of falling energy prices and geopolitical turmoil incited by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Mention Waikato and what usually first comes to mind are cow-filled paddocks, a long river and a university.

Airbus has rushed two specialists to Jakarta to assist in the investigation of the disappeared A320 airliner operated by AirAsia, the budget carrier that rose from almost nothing in 2001 to be its biggest customer.

United States markets head into the last week of the year with a "Santa Claus rally" having lifted them to record highs, picking up momentum from outstanding GDP numbers in the world's biggest economy.

Follow the locals' instructions and this Unesco World Heritage-listed walking trail in the Kii Mountains could make your dreams come true, writes Kate Hodal.

New Zealand's eurocentric reference point in trade has been transformed in the past 20 years, writes Philip Burdon.

From slum tours to luxury high tea, Bhanu Bhatnagar offers an insider's guide to India's fascinating metropolis.

A Kiwi facing a charge of smuggling methamphetamine into Bali will need more than $100,000 to hire a lawyer specialising in cases punishable by death, an expert says.

New details have emerged about a NZ man's trip to Asia to meet his internet girlfriend for the first time, before he was arrested for allegedly smuggling meth into Bali.

China's big three state-owned airlines are spreading their wings and heading for New Zealand this summer and have room for the number of flights to double.