Starting a new school year can be stressful, and the latest trends and must-have basics available from Thomas Pink and Montblanc ensure you stay in style so you can better focus on your studies.

For men, bold, preppy plaid shirts, timeless tweed blazers and crisp, poplin shirts make a style statement, while the Thomas Pink women’s collection, inspired by vintage influences, offers versatile boyfriend shirts, beautifully tailored silk blouses and luxurious soft knits.

From everyday appeal to after school chic, the Thomas Pink Autumn/Winter Collection has something for everyone this back to school season.

Brand new this season, Thomas Pink provides you with the ultimate in style and durability with its latest collection, the Comfort Stretch.

The slim fit style with a semi cut away collar and double button cuff details will set you apart from the rest. Offering a selection of eight stunning colors, the Comfort Stretch Shirt is constructed to provide additional durability, exceptional comfort and enough ‘give’ to accommodate all day movement.

Not only do the neutral tones in Montblanc’s Fall watch collections make a cinch to pair it with all your back to school attire, but an investment in a great timepiece can make it an accessory you’ll have well into your future career. These styles especially are elegant and timeless, and make quite the impressive statement

India is buzzing with anticipation as blockbuster Bollywood feature film I Hate Luv Storys, partly filmed in Queenstown, premieres tomorrow (Friday 2 July) in India and across the World.

Starring the latest Bollywood heart throbs Imran Khan and Sonam Kapoor, the plot revolves around a couple coming to film a ‘Bollywood love story’ in Queenstown and getting caught up in their own love story at the same time.

Tourism New Zealand Regional Manager India & South East Asia, Kiran Nambiar played a leading role himself in attracting the film-makers to New Zealand . He also spent time with the crew during filming in Queenstown to help make sure things went smoothly.

The blockbuster will showcase Queenstown and New Zealand as a visitor destination to an expected audience of 150 million during its run.

“With growth in Indian arrivals expected be modest over the coming months I Hate Luv Storys, tipped to be a Bollywood success, is a fantastic opportunity for New Zealand to increase exposure in this developing market,” says Tourism New Zealand Chief Executive Kevin Bowler.

WELCOME is the multi award-winning new film from writer/director Philippe Lioret – a compassionate and inspiring drama about the unlikely friendship between two men contending with issues of lost love and dislocation.

17-year-old Bilal (Firat Ayverdi) has spent the last three months travelling illegally across Europe, in an attempt to reunite with his girlfriend who has moved with her family to England.

WELCOME is in cinemas July 1^st.

A New Zealand student will this month go up against the world’s best in Google's first-ever global Doodle 4 Google competition.

 To celebrate the 2010 FIFA World Cup, Google invited young people across New Zealand to show their love for the game by designing a Google logo inspired by the theme “I love football". A New Zealand Top 10 were chosen from the hundreds of entries received, and Kiwi Google users were asked to vote for their favourite.

From the thousands of votes cast at www.google.co.nz/doodle4google, 13-year-old Southland student Holly Pierce emerged as the crowd favourite, receiving nearly one-quarter of all votes.

Holly’s vibrant doodle features footballs in place of the Google Os, and also incorporates a World Cup and referee’s whistle. It will be displayed on the Google New Zealand homepage for 24 hours to support the All Whites on the day of their first match on 15 June 2010, to be viewed by millions of people.

Holly’s design will then be entered into the global competition, going up against the other international Doodle 4 Google winners, where people from around the world will vote for their overall favourite doodle. The winning design will be displayed on the Google homepage of all participating countries for 24 hours in July 2010.

To vote for Holly’s doodle in the international competition, head to www.google.co.nz/doodle4google from June 21. Voting will be open for one week until June 28.

Auckland Airport welcomed the announcement today from Jetstar of daily return flights between Auckland and Singapore commencing in March 2011, subject to regulatory approval.

Auckland Airport chief executive Simon Moutter said, “Today’s announcement of new daily services between Auckland and the rapidly expanding Jetstar hub in Singapore is a significant step towards achieving greater connectivity and reach between the fast growing Asian markets and New Zealand.” 

The new services will feature two-classes on the Airbus A330-200 aircraft, and will offer a new Qantas Group international route from New Zealand through Singapore to multiple Asian and European destinations.

Auckland Airport believes the implications of this announcement are significant in terms of the enormous market growth potential, the rapid expansion in the Asian region of successful low-cost carrier networks such as Jetstar and the complementary nature of these trends with the airports own growth strategy to drive more travel demand out of Asia.

Mr Moutter said, “With one of the first Jetstar wide-body long haul services connecting from Auckland to Singapore, the low-cost carrier model is now being successfully applied to longer haul destinations, a very important development which we believe offers the New Zealand tourism industry a fantastic opportunity to link up with the rapidly expanding low-cost carrier network and markets in Asia.”

“This news is very consistent with our own Asian tourism growth ambitions”, added Mr Moutter, “Auckland Airport had recently signalled to the market an intention to invest further into building sustainable high growth markets out of Asia, and the additional 220,000 seats per annum from Jetstar announced today provides just some of the extra capacity we need to achieve this goal. It also offers a very differentiated and stimulatory service on a key route. This will not only benefit New Zealand tourism and trade but will provide New Zealand travellers with greater choice.”

Auckland Airport general manager aeronautical business development Glenn Wedlock said that the growth ambitions of Jetstar are also very significant.

“With these new daily services to Singapore, the existing Jetstar onward connections into unique markets in China, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia and Taiwan, and their stated ambition for further route expansion, Jetstar will help Auckland achieve significant travel growth from the wider Asian region – growth that is critical to New Zealand” said Mr Wedlock. 

Today’s announcement caps a busy period for Jetstar, coming on the eve of the first anniversary of their entry into the New Zealand domestic market, and just days after Jetstar announced an additional A320 aircraft to be based in New Zealand.

Jetstar Executive Manager Operations Mark Dal Pra made the announcement today in Auckland accompanied by Auckland International Airport and New Zealand Tourism officials.

“Jetstar continues to spread its wings out of New Zealand, Australia and increasingly pan Asia and this new daily service will bring unprecedented new opportunities, through lower fares, to drive more travel between Auckland and Asia,” Mr Dal Pra said.

The new Jetstar services will support major New Zealand tourism initiatives including the 2011 Rugby World Cup.

Mr Moutter said, “Auckland Airport is very proud to be associated with the successful and ambitious growth story of Jetstar.”      

Yesterday, It's a big day for my friend Jem Cortez as the Miss Saigon NZ Musicale opening nights at the St. James Theater. Jem is one of two filipinos that are member of the show with Ivy Rose Padilla,another Filipino,who bags the role as Kim.

I'm also pretty excited that I gonna interview them for GMA channel 7 Pinoy abroad.  My editor Malou want me to do a story about Ivy. I just coordinating with the Wellington Musical Theatre to set the time and place.

Jeremiah Cortez

Coming from the Philippines, Jeremiah has been a resident of Wellington since 2007. She took classical singing in 2005 at the Academy of Performing Arts in the Philippines and gained much theatrical training through the many productions she was part of. She loves the theatre and has been performing since the age of 13, including high school productions, some of which she also directed. Her first performance in Wellington was with the Wellington Repertory Theatre in Happy as a Sandbag. She has loved Miss Saigon since childhood and is thrilled to be part of this production.

Ivy Rose Padilla

Ivy Rose was born in the Philippines and moved to New Zealand with her husband Poch and daughter Denise in 2008. Ivy graduated in 2003 from De Le Salle University with a Bachelors degree in Business Administration Majoring in Computer Applications. While still at university she was the lead vocalist in an alternative rock band who did both original and cover songs.

Ivy has performed in many productions in the Philippines but says landing the role of Kim in her New Zealand debut performance is a dream come true. Miss Saigon is one of her favourite musicals and the role of Kim is her favourite character.

Set in 1975 during the final days of the American occupation of Saigon, Miss Saigon is an epic love story about the relationship between an American G.I. and a young Vietnamese woman.

For more information, go to Miss Saigon New Zealand  or St James Theater website

Auckland Airport has cemented its status as a world-class tourism and trade hub – voted the 9thth best airport in the world (up from 10th last year) and the best airport in the Australian Pacific region (for the second year in a row) in the 2010 independent Skytrax World Airport awards.

Auckland Airport is the only airport from the Australia Pacific region, and one of only four airports from outside Asia, to make the elite Skytrax top-10 global list.

As well as heading off strong competition from across the Tasman to win the Best Airport Australia Pacific trophy, Auckland also triumphed in the Staff Service Excellence category for the region.

Auckland Airport’s chief executive, Simon Moutter, said, “We’re incredibly proud. Being recognised as one of the 10 best airports in the world for the first time last year was outstanding in itself, but to see our focus on service delivering an even better result this year is immensely rewarding. We’re grateful to all the travellers who voted for us, and to the entire Auckland Airport community who work so tirelessly to improve the passenger experience and deliver world-class customer service.

To us, it’s all about getting it right for travellers, and playing our part to grow New Zealand travel, trade and tourism.” Announced at The Skytrax World Airport Awards ceremony, held yesterday evening at the Passenger Terminal Expo 2010 in Brussels, Belgium, Skytrax World Airport Awards are the industry’s most extensive air traveller-based awards.

The Awards are based on a survey of airport customers conducted between July 2009 and March 2010, covering more than 9.8 million travellers from over 100 different countries.

Mr Moutter said, “I think there is a strong link between the Skytrax Awards and our work with our airport partners on efficiency initiatives to improve the traveller experience.

For instance, an ongoing project using Lean Six Sigma methodologies is already improving the end-to-end arrivals process considerably, and is being extended to other areas of Auckland Airport operations.

“Combined with the enormous investment we have made into our departures and arrivals areas, the introduction of a new and wider range of retail and parking products, the launch of SmartGate and the development of more air-services to Auckland, we’re absolutely focused on how we can make the passenger experience at Auckland Airport memorable for all the right reasons.” Edward Plaisted, Chairman of Skytrax said: “Auckland International Airport has been improving its overall global ranking during the years of the World Airport Survey, and I congratulate them on achieving this Best Airport Australia Pacific title in 2010.

The staff service at Auckland Airport was a clear reason why this airport has performed so well this year, and continued to improve its standing within the overall survey.

Many survey respondents commented on pleasant security and immigration staff, as well as improvements in the standard of passenger service information.

The top 5 Airports for the Australia / Pacific region was headed by Auckland in 1st with the remaining airports being Brisbane 2nd, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide who achieved 3rd, 4th and 5th respectively." Mr Moutter said, “This recognition is very much driven by passengers. We work exceptionally hard to listen, to understand what they want, and to do what we can to meet passenger needs and provide them with great product and service choices.”

Mr Moutter added, “These Skytrax awards are also satisfying because they reflect the genuine New Zealand experiences that travellers have had in terms of the friendliness, can-do attitude and responsiveness of all the people they meet.

It’s a testament to the passion and commitment of everyone at the airport, from the border agencies to the baggage handlers, from retailers to rental-car companies, from emergency services to cleaners. We won’t be standing still.

We are determined to keep getting better, and we encourage passengers to help us improve. Our firm belief is that by continuing to provide a great first and last impression of New Zealand, we can help encourage repeat visitors and in turn help drive travel and tourism demand and economic growth.” he said

Today InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) announced the relaunch of its 2000th Holiday Inn hotel, the Holiday Inn Express Edinburgh – Waterfront, in Scotland.

Holiday Inn is undergoing the biggest relaunch in hospitality industry history with a $1 billion investment across more than 3,200 hotels and 430,000 rooms worldwide.

First announced in October 2007, the relaunch is committed to offering guests a consistently good experience at all Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express hotels around the world, from Adelaide to Atlanta and Rome to Rio.

Holiday Inn is also improving the quality of its hotels throughout the world with new openings, another 900 hotels in the Holiday Inn global development pipeline and the removal of poorer quality hotels.

The Holiday Inn brand was founded by Kemmons Wilson in 1952 with the first hotel opening in Memphis, Tennessee. 58 years on, Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express are in 100 countries worldwide and welcome over 100 million people every year.

To showcase its hospitality and expertise worldwide, Holiday Inn has been named as the official hotel services provider to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

As a sponsor, Holiday Inn will be providing expertise in accommodation and services before and during the Games.

Andy Cosslett, IHG's chief executive said, "Reaching 2,000 relaunched Holiday Inn hotels is a major milestone. We're two thirds of the way through the biggest relaunch in our industry's history, and on track to complete the programme by the end of the year."

"We've been asked whether now is the right economic climate to do this relaunch and the answer is definitely yes. Not only is the relaunch delivering improved guest satisfaction and RevPAR (revenue per available room) outperformance, it's also resetting the perception of Holiday Inn and will help the brand stay relevant for the next 50 years."

The relaunch focuses on the things research shows matter most to guests – a modern, contemporary hotel with efficient, friendly service and a great night's sleep.

Wellington International Airport Limited today congratulated Air New Zealand on moving to change its Tasman and Pacific Island product.

Chief Executive Steve Fitzgerald said the changes, which will come into effect later this year, could be an important step in generating even more travel between New Zealand and Australia .

"Air New Zealand 's changes again demonstrate that it is a world leader in product innovation. The range of products will further enhance choice and competition, and Wellington Airport is very pleased with the increased capacity that will result," Mr Fitzgerald said.

Based on Air New Zealand’s current schedule of services, the reconfiguration of Air New Zealand aircraft will add around 10% in capacity on the Tasman for Wellington .

The 48th National Jazz Festival has just announced the line up of top New Zealand bands and international guests for the iconic Downtown Tauranga

Carnival and TV3 Jazz Village as part of the Festival in Tauranga at Easter.

The Downtown Tauranga Carnival takes place in the central city on Saturday 3 and Sunday 4 April with four stages showcasing the diverse assortment of jazz with free entry. On Sunday 4 and Monday 5 April, the TV3 Jazz Village at the Historic Village features more than 20 bands on four stages as well as strolling bands, food and art stalls and activities for the children and entry is $10 for adults and free for children under 14 and TECT cardholders.

“We want the National Jazz Festival to be for everyone,” says Festival Director Arne Herrmann.

“The Downtown Tauranga Carnival and the TV3 Jazz Village will be fun events for the wider community, with the Carnival being an upbeat street affair, and the Jazz Village catering for a more relaxed family day out with some great jazz music.”

The TV3 Jazz Village, Tauranga’s own version of New Orleans’ French Quarter, was a crowd favourite in 2009 with thousands of visitors joining in the fun and Mr Herrmann says this year will be even better with more bands and more activities. Lining up at the village will be top New Zealand musicians Kokomo, Torch Songs, Shaken Not Stirred and the Darcy Perry Band. International guest performers include Yggdrasil (Faroe Islands), Phil Tweed and Mark Lockett from Australia and Mike Cooper (UK).

And you can star too – bring along your instrument and join in on the Hothouse Jamming Stage with the Hamilton Blues Club on Saturday and the Bay of Plenty Blues Club on Sunday. Tickets for the TV3 Jazz Village are $10 adults and free for children under 14 and TECT card-holders. Tickets can be pre-booked and there will be two entrances into the village from 17th Avenue.

The Downtown Tauranga Carnival runs from noon to 5pm each day with four stages – Classic Hits Stage at The Strand, Strand 2, Red Square and a special Indigenous Stage at Aspen Reserve. Among the artists on the Classic Hits and Strand 2 stages are local Tauranga favourites, the Self Righteous Brothers Blues Ensemble (Derek Jacombs and Nigel Masters from Kokomo), NZ jazz drummer Frank Gibson with The Young Lions, , Mike Garner, Brilleaux, Reputations and Liquid Colours from Auckland. \

The Indigenous Stage features award winning Maori Jazz musician Whirimako Black, Tait Kora Band, Leon Wharekura Band, Three’s Company and Tim Cooper Whanau and Friends, while Red Square has a Blues Buffet on Saturday and The Impressions on Sunday.

The Downtown Tauranga Carnival and TV3 Jazz Village are just two of the highlights of the 48th National Jazz Festival held in Tauranga from 1-5 April and as one of the oldest jazz festivals in the world, the National Jazz Festival is an iconic event on the music calendar in New Zealand.