Funi and Wang Wang graces Adelaide Zoo

 
Active and playful 3 year-old female Funi

This is not exactly a car hire story but then Giant Pandas are the pinnacle of cute. Funi and Wang Wang, two national treasures the Chinese have graciously entrusted to Australia for the next 10 years, officially landed in Adelaide today and will be ready to receive fawning human fans from Monday, 14th December 2009.

Giant Pandas are an endangered species meaning they are at a very high risk of extinction, so wherever out of town you’re from, that’s two more very compelling and fuzzy reasons to drive out to Adelaide with the family. At the very least, that’s a little easier than flying to China.

And once the duo settle in, we’re keeping our fingers crossed Australia’s air works its magical love mojo on the couple (as it has recently on celebrities like Robbie Williams, Britney and Jordan’s cage fighter, although hopefully with more successful outcomes).

 
Chilled and laid-back 4 year-old male Wang Wang

More on Adelaide Zoo and Giant Pandas

Adelaide Zoo Official Site
Adelaide Zoo Giant Panda Site
WWF – All About The Giant Panda

Adelaide Zoo is located right smack in downtown Adelaide so you can’t miss it.

To see the pandas, you’ll have to buy your admission ticket to the zoo and then book a time slot for Panda Viewing in advance from their website. A standard adult ticket costs $26.

If you believe passionately in supporting the Giant Panda cause, consider making a simple online donation to support their voracious bamboo eating habits or even become 1 of 60 Adopters for a cool $5,000. Help save them!

Photos courtesy of Adelaide Zoo

Car Hire Price Hike: 50% Up, So Now What?

Anyone who has rented a car from Avis, Budget, Europcar, Hertz, or Thrifty before mid-2009 will be in for a big shock when they notice the not-so-modest jump in current car hire prices. Our original post on car hire costs to expect used to say a 1-week car hire for a full-sized sedan will cost you an average of A$290. Now, we’ve revised it to ask you to expect a cost around the A$430 mark. That’s a whopping 40-50% average price increase across Australia’s major city airports!

Why has this happened? (with thanks to Sarah for the question)
The global recession has hit the travel industry hard – just look at all the flailing airlines – and that includes car hire. The story as told by the major car rental companies is that they’ve had to slash their fleet in order to stay afloat in these bad times. As a result, with greatly reduced cars available, they’ve had to push up prices. How absolutely essential it is for them to raise prices this substantially, if at all, is open to debate.

What can we do about it?
Thankfully, most of the major price hikes have been reserved to the big global brands. If you want to stick with these known names, you will just have to fork out the money. But you may be more motivated to consider other options: Many of the smaller independent companies haven’t increased their prices (and even if they have, it’s by a lot less). We suggest you do a little extra research on alternative companies as now, more than ever, your savings will likely be sizable. A little digging can go a long way.