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Timeshare Rendezvous --by Tony Clark It's tough being one of the scattered nation, living in the most isolated city in the world. Friends and family from my youth in Zimbabwe dot the globe. Perth, 3 hours by jet from the nearest large city, is an 18 hour trip from London or Los Angeles. Too far for them to visit us, too costly for us to go more than once every few years. Moreover, even if we did visit them, or them us, there's the problem of living in someone's house - no holiday for the host. Timeshare seemed to be the answer. Why not invite our friends to meet up with us somewhere in the world and share a week's vacation? Does it work? You betcha! We trialed it in January this year when good friends living in Budapest met up with us in New Zealand. And it worked a dream - a magic vacation filled with fun and memories. It takes work and planning. Someone has to be responsible for organising everything. Don't split the job - it only leads to mistakes. The first thing is to get everyone to agree on a destination. Having done that, get the timeshare swaps in as soon as possible. Next, everyone lists one or two tours/activities or must-do's. Here's where there needs to be some tact and understanding. For example, one of the activities I wanted to do in New Zealand was a heli-hike on Fox Glacier. But I knew that our wives had a fear of heights - it took careful discussion to establish that the activity was do-able. In the end it turned out to be one of the most memorable days of the whole tour, but I doubt that I could have persuaded anyone to try the bungee-jumping. A week is about right and a two-bedroom place is a must. Food and meals are another factor to carefully consider. We ended up buying cereals and fruit for breakfast and lunch and ate out most evenings. That would have to be modified if staying in a place like London, where eating out is expensive. A big plus - sharing car hire and food costs, combined with timeshare - meant more vacation money for tours and activities. Would we do it again? Well, yes - plans are on the board for a trip to the Canadian Rockies, Alaska and Lake Tahoe - September 2001. Tony Clark is a VP of a software company, based in Perth, Western Australia. With offices around the world, he is a frequent traveller to the USA and UK. A newcomer to timesharing, he is well travelled, having lived and worked in London, Southern Africa and Australia. Tony will be giving us his personal perspectives on business travel, Southern Africa and Australia/New Zealand and timeshares. He can be contacted at tony@ermapper.com.au. (Check out the biggest image ( 190,000Mb) ever shown on the internet - without locking up your computer - at http://www.EarthEtc.com.)

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