Pete's win

Status
Not open for further replies.

Skyring

Established Member
Joined
Oct 18, 2005
Posts
2,199
Qantas
LT Silver
A couple of months ago Qantas launched their Travel Insider e-magazine / social networking site. They had a travel-writing competition to kick it off, where entrants had to write 250 words about an experience that fuelled their love of travel.

I thought about this, and dashed off a paragraph about a delightful experience I'd had in my first days of global roaming back in 2006. Boy, was it hard to cut it down to 250 words. I had to think hard about that.

And when I saw some of the thousands of entries submitted to the contest, I pretty much gave up hope. Qantas has a vast number of experienced, literate, lyrical travellers, and they all had some marvellous stories to tell. Just browsing through them and there were dozens, hundreds of places I had to go.

So it was a pleasant surprise to be informed last week that I'd one a prize. Ninth out of the twelve winners, so I had my choice of four holiday weekends. Dunk Island, Brampton Island, Ayers Rock and Kings Canyon or Ayers Rock 5-star.

They were all tempting, but with my wife along, and only one of the prizes offering a spa treatment, I selected the Ayers Rock Relaxation package.

So thank you, Qantas!

My winning entry is here and you can then click through to the other winners. The first prize winner is a thrilling, pungent, evocative piece of travel writing and I am honoured to be in such company.

A condition of the prize is that I have to write 500 words on the trip, with photographs and video shot on the camera which is a part of the award. It will be devilish hard to find five hundred words on Ayers Rock that haven't been used previously!
 
Congrats! You have a very eloquent style of writing, so not surprising to see you in the top 10!

Enjoy your trip. Looking forward to your trip report!
 
Congratulations, as with what Mal posted, I am not surprised you did so well. :mrgreen::D
 
Congratulations!

Can't wait to read your 500 word travel essay and hopefully a TR as well :)
 
I will add my congratulations as well.... you write very well, and your stories always make for a good read... congrats, and I am sure Mrs Pete will be happy to allow you to continue your writing and frequent AFF site visits :)
 
Congrats; I knew the competition was tough to write a good trip report on AFF but I didn't think it would be that tough.

Who gets to read the 500 part first, and have you got a link to where you had the complete trip report.
 
Well done! I must admit I'd forgotten about the comp as well. Great piece, and I look forward to the official TR (and that QF one as well:D)
 
Well done.. I agree it can be so hard to cut down something to so short!!! Look forward to your next one!

Nick
 
Great writing Pete and very well done on receiving an award.

Always look forward to reading your TR's as well.
 
I didn't mention it in my TR, but the Qantas mag editor who was sitting next to me on the A380 was busy with judging the entries to this competition. I managed to sneak a peek and one of the entries looked suspiciously like yours. ;) Congrats, most well-deserved! :D
 
Fantastic.Great effort,well deserved.Guess i am going to have to practise harder.Somehow dont think my efforts will rate alongside yours.
Enjoy the Rock.
 
Well done and thanks for publicising your win here. Just goes to show that real people do win. :)

Now for those of us who don't always see these competitions etc is there perhaps scope for a competition thread with an Australian focus?
 
Congrats Pete. Just read your entry - a real masterpiece. Very eloquent.

Next time I'm in CBR I can only hope to be riding in your taxi, listening to a yarn just like that.
 
Thanks for all the sweet words! I'm currently sitting out on the balcony on a cool Canberra morning - heat of the day to come - drinking fresh brewed coffee out of the BBC Radio Guernsey mug Jenny gave to me.

It must have been bloody difficult judging the contest, but I noticed that the winning entries all had a bit of quirkiness about them. Places off the beaten track, a different slant on travel, a nice way with words. You could almost feel the hot music jumping and taste the fried catfish in the winning entry.

There were hundreds of delightful pieces on Paris and New York and London - all the same. Much as I love all three places, just how many times do I have to hear the same thoughts expressed in slightly different phrasing? My guess is that most of these got read once and set aside. Likewise anything that needed serious spelling or grammar fixes.

Most of the regulars here would have a good shot at winning such a competition, I'm thinking. Everyone's got a favorite spot or travel experience that's not in all the brochures. There was a hint in the entry instructions that said that entries that made the judges want to go to the place mentioned would have a good chance, and I was thinking of that when I wrote my piece.

You get in my cab - and I do the airport runs of a weekend afternoon and an evening in Canberra, so I'm one of about a hundred regulars on the cab rank there - and I'll have the slideshow on my iPhone going, showing some of my best travel photographs, often with my co-driver, my little BBC Radio Shropshire bear who sits in the corner of the dash, featuring in front of some travel icon.

In a few weeks I'll have another photo to display. Ringbear sitting in front of Ayers Rock!
 
Congratulations Pete!

I have still yet to ride in your cab, but if I do, I'll buy you a coffee to congratulate you (can't say 'drink' as you're driving...).
 
Congratulations Pete, well deserved. You certainly made me put Guernsey on my list of places to go. Love your TRs also.
 
The Frequent Flyer Concierge team takes the hard work out of finding reward seat availability. Using their expert knowledge and specialised tools, they'll help you book a great trip that maximises the value for your points.

AFF Supporters can remove this and all advertisements

Congratulations!!! Well deserved! Great writing style:)
 
Liked your story skyring, congratulations on the win. Just shows, you've gotta be in it to win it. ;)
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Enhance your AFF viewing experience!!

From just $6 we'll remove all advertisements so that you can enjoy a cleaner and uninterupted viewing experience.

And you'll be supporting us so that we can continue to provide this valuable resource :)


Sample AFF with no advertisements? More..
Back
Top