Kiwi.com’s Instagram contest #WhatOnEarth has its first winners. We’ve got the stories behind the shots, and their ambitious plans…
These days, few things are as important as making your friends shout: “What on earth?” as they scroll through your Instagram. And the only way to do that is to take a snap that really stands out from the crowd.
Take @pavlinakocova’s pic – pale blue water tumbles off a Costa Rican cliff, contrasting with the racing green of the foliage that it falls through. It could be a good travel shot but for the one thing that pushes her ahead of the pack: she’s standing on her head.
Pavlina was the inaugural winner of Kiwi.com Stories’ #WhatOnEarth Instagram competition and received 200 euro of travel vouchers to spend on Kiwi.com.
She was followed this week by @tasteourshare, an account run by a couple who love to travel. They will receive 100 euro of vouchers each.
When Pavlina heard that she had won she said: “Woohoo, it’s absolutely amazing! I’m going to travel anywhere I can do some nice surfing!
“It was a lovely day in Costa Rica, so I went on a journey to a local rainforest to check up on this wonder I’d heard so much about. Up until then I still really couldn’t believe that a river running through a forest could be so unbelievably blue.”
Our judge for the first round, Oliver Dlouhý, the CEO of Kiwi.com, told Pavlina: “At first I thought this picture was taken in Australia, but apparently, even in Costa Rica, things can go upside down sometimes…! Enjoy your travels and keep your head up!”
Matěj and Veronika, who run @tasteourshare, were amazed when they heard they had won with their picture of Matěj relaxing in an Icelandic hot spring with a beer.
They said: “Honestly we still can’t believe it! We want to discover the undiscovered, and taste the untasted. All of this in the hope of creating amazing new memories. Anyway, we’re not sure yet where we will go.”
“The photo was taken at the end of our two-month summer job in Iceland. We decided to depart in the early morning hours with a backpack full of beer and hiked to the hot river called Hveragerdi. Even the rain couldn’t stop us – actually it had the opposite effect!”
This time, our judge was Kristýna Melcherová, Order Processing Specialist at Kiwi.com. She said: “Woah! This is definitely the most super-chill photo ever. There’s literally nothing better than being drunk in the water.”
The runners-up for each round were @iammark_viern’s picture from the Indonesian island of Sangiang and @kkarolina_cz’s pic of colourful mini burgers from Madrid. Both won 50 euro of Kiwi.com vouchers.
To enter #WhatOnEarth, just follow @kiwicom247 on Instagram, and post a picture with the caption: “Here’s my photo for the #WhatOnEarth #contest from @kiwicom247. Every two weeks you can win a €200 #travel voucher!” More information can be found here.
Of course, Stories was inundated with excellent entries and not all of them could win.
An honourable mention and a fair amount of kudos go to @vonitoe and his giant whale shark. He’s a brave guy. Vonitoe has been travelling in the Philippines for eight years and captured this snap in Oslob Town.
“The photo was taken by the boatman who accompanied me during an early morning swim. It gave us the perfect conditions to take this photo,” he said.
“The sea was calm and so were the gentle giants. Getting close to this humongous underwater creature was just a wonderful and mesmerising experience.”
Or how about @dwimagda who had a nine-hour layover in Kuala Lumpur while travelling with Kiwi.com: “We decided to go around Kuala Lumpur on the free Go KL bus.
“We tried a dozen times to get this nice shot and we were all sweaty. But it was worth the effort and gave us a precious experience. We love that moment!”
We all thought @ginger.box’s photo was hilarious. She was on her first big trip with her boyfriend to the beautiful island of Bali. They managed to get out to the beach for some snorkelling but hadn’t checked the tide.
“I was trying to take some beautiful photos from beach,” Ginger.Box said.
“My boyfriend tried to snorkel but because we didn’t know that the tide was going out he scratched his belly on the coral.”
“We can say that Bali is a beautiful country with many kinds people and with a lot of amazing places. It was a really great experience.”
For a chance to win up to €200 in Kiwi.com vouchers, visit #WhatOnEarth
