Marking the milestone release, the tour operator is offering travellers 10 per cent off the new range for all 2020 departures during 1 April 2020– 31 March 2021, when booked before 31 October 2019.

Topdeck General Manager of Sales David Gendle says the sale celebrates small group travel experiences across each destination, offering epic itineraries that maximise time, create an immersive and authentic trip.

“We want our travellers to truly get to the heart of the local culture and go beyond the typical tourist hotspots,” Mr Gendle said.

“Many of our previous and upcoming groups wanted an intimate, in-depth holiday experience and that is exactly what we’ve designed here. Sometimes smaller is better!”

Reducing the group sizes to 16 – 30, travellers are exposed to under the radar trails where they can uncover a range of lesser-known gems.

Three new legs into the colourful destination of India include a 10-day Namaste India, 11-day Temple Run, and 20-day Experience India tour. Each itinerary is uniquely their own, featuring experiences including a walking tour of Old Dehli, watching the sunrise over the Taj Mahal, a Chettinad cooking class, visits to Brihadishvara and Srirangam temples, and more.

New Middle Eastern trips include a 10-day Surf, Sand & Souks tour from Casablanca to Essaouira, visiting the Roman ruins of Volubilis, Marrakech and Fes. For an incredible underwater experience, the 6-day Dahab Beach Break from Cairo includes a once in a lifetime snorkelling expedition of the paradise of Dahab.

Topdeck has also introduced three new trips into Africa starting from seven to 18 days. The South African Adventure from Johannesburg takes you on an 18-day adventure through two renowned national parks including Kruger and Addo Elephant. The 13-day Sun & Safari offers an exhilarating four-wheeled drive experience through the Maasai Mara National Research and Serengeti National Park and Ngorongoro Crater. Enjoy a wilderness walk and a tour of the Victoria falls across 7-days of Big Five ‘N’ Falls.

Topdeck’s newly-unveiled trips range from four to 18 days in length, catering to all travellers aged 18 – 39 years of age.

To find your perfect trip and both your 2020 departure, visit: https://www.topdeck.travel

In a statement issued by the New Zealand Council for Civil Liberties, it expressed its disappointment regarding the law that came into effect saying:

“Modern smartphones contain a large amount of highly sensitive private information including emails, letters, medical records, personal photos, and very personal photos. Allowing Customs to be able to demand the right to examine and capture all this information is a grave invasion of personal privacy of both the person who owns the device and the people they have communicated with.” – Thomas Beagle, Chairperson of the NZ Council for Civil Liberties

Any such invasion of privacy should require both an important reason, as well as a suitable process for granting it. We note that the requirements and procedures in this new law are very lightweight, have no oversight, and compare badly to the procedures that must be followed by our Police and intelligence services.

Customs originally demanded to be able to perform these searches without restrictions. The law now says they have to have reasonable cause, but they do not have to prove this before confiscating your device, nor is there a way to meaningfully protest or appeal at the time of confiscation.

“The reality of this law is that it gives Customs the power to take and force the unlock of peoples smartphones without justification or appeal – and this is exactly what Customs has always wanted.

We don’t see any justification for this expansion of their powers (which is really merely a codification of the power that Customs has always baselessly claimed for itself). In theory, it is only for “relevant offending” i.e. detecting crimes against the Customs Act. In other words, we’re giving Customs access to our entire digital lives so they can possibly stop someone importing a pirated movie or avoiding paying duty.

Any professional criminal could easily store their data on the internet, travel with a wiped phone, and restore it once they enter the country. Any criminal who fails to do this would surely pay $5k fine rather than reveal evidence relating to crimes that might involve jail time.

Rather it seems it’s going to catch normal law-abiding people who are obliged to give up their personal information or lose their smartphone. It’s also going to catch people travelling with their partner’s phone who can’t unlock it, it’s going to catch people with a laptop used by multiple people who can’t unlock the files belonging to the other users. It’s going to mean that Customs officers can take and snoop through any device they wish to.

We think that this is disproportionate – the imposition on regular law abiding people far outweighs the minor benefits realisable through the use of the power. As such this part of the law can’t be justified under the Bill of Rights Act which forbids “unreasonable search and seizure” and it should be removed.

“Demanding people hand over the contents of their smartphones containing personal data for the ostensible purpose of preventing crimes against the Customs Act is grossly excessive and cannot be justified.” – Thomas Beagle