Walking through any major town centre on a Thursday, Friday or Saturday night after midnight without getting the shirt kicked out of you by drunken tossers is an extreme sport in New Zealand.

When are they planning to air the P-smoking and child-beating episode?

Extreme sports in Queenstown? That's not going to change anyones perceptions of NZ. The only surprise as a Brit when you get here is the "outdoorsy, stoic and environmentally conscious" Kiwi is actually just as lethargic as everyone else, knows very little (for the most part) about their own country (and nothing about the outside world) and has absolutely no concern whatsoever for enviromental issues. To change Brits perception of NZ, it should be painted as driven, modern and energetic business environment. Queenstown isn't exactly representative.

Maybe Tourism NZ should just swap images of people drinking wine for images of some chavs skulling beer and chundering if they want to attract more young Brits. Perhaps a few images of drunken skankpackers 'mooning' to create their own 'Lord of the Rings'too? If Tourism NZ wanna know what attracts young Brits and Irish,just study the Coogee (part. the Coogee Bay Hotel) and Bondi phenomenon in Sydney. Most of the backpackers never see anything more of Oz than the inside of a pub. Why should it be any different here. In all honesty, The Gap Year is all about booze, drugs, and random sex away from mummy and daddy. The location doesn't matter. Could be Skegness for all they care.

i'm from the UK and the adverts dont jump out at young people. When i told my mates i was going to move to auckland from london they didnt even know where auckland was or wellington.

most people from the UK just go to OZ because they know what to expect.

@ Russell #1:

Please read the whole article:

"In my audition video I talked about Lord of the Rings – I didn't know about anything else. The adverts we see (about New Zealand) just show fields and people drinking wine."

We want people to know there is more to NZ than what they see in Lord of the Rings. Trying to broaden the market is never a bad thing.

What on EARTH does Queenstown have to do with the "real" New Zealand. I lived there for years. It's a shallow and cheap impersonation of North American resort towns, and has about as much in common with an authentic Kiwi experience as Disneyland has in common with the REAL America. You can't even SEE the real (authentically beautiful) NZ countryside anymore, beyond all those endless copycat multi-storey schist-heaps. Spend a gap year in Southland or the Waikato or Northland if you want to change the way Brits see the real NZ...

I love how eating bugs is an extreme sport.

A complete rip off of the 2007 Tropical Northern Queensland campaign... Most fun.tv There's nothing new or unique here.

"bungy jumping, whitewater rafting, jetboating, eeling and eating grubs."

Yeah, that's really changing people's perceptions of New Zealand. Earth-shattering.