Gifts to make your eyes water

Giftday, an over-the-top online store, is one of many offering customers quirky gifts - such as lion cub encounters for R595 a couple and sunset cruises along Cape Town's Clifton Beach for R575.

The store, owned by Craig Sandeman, also offers an Audi R8 high-performance driving course for R12000.

Hot items

Its most popular gifts include helicopter flying lessons, high-speed Ducati rides and a blistering lap in a R1.5-million Ferrari 360 Challenge for R1695.

But for the wealthier Christmas shopper, a R145000 ticket to board the English Electric Lightning Jet could just be the ultimate.

"Soon after take-off, you go vertical very quickly, and as you are climbing to 50000ft (about 15200m), you break the sound barrier. At the apex of the climb you join the elite few who've seen the curvature of the earth from 50000 feet," according to the Giftday website.

"In most cases, recipients would never go on the experiences that we offer of their own accord," said Sandeman. "Our gifts offer them a delightful change in their daily lifestyle."

Extreme gifts

For R6995 you can snap up a 30-minute extreme aerobatic flight for two; there's also the tandem skydiving experience which at R2495 includes an intensive lesson on how to land before being whisked into the sky, where you are harnessed to a skydiving instructor. The plummet towards earth takes a few minutes at speeds of well over 200km/h, said Sandeman.

But for people who feel safer on the ground, there's the R7995, 45-minute ride in a single-seater Grand Prix-styled car, built by the company that produced the original F1 Honda BAR cars.

Romantic rides

Giftday also offers romantic champagne picnic flights at R3350, where a couple board two different fixed-wing microlights for a "memorable" hour-long flight.

"After landing you will enjoy a champagne picnic. On a recent flight a gentleman proposed to the lady over the radio. all at 1000 feet above ground level," said Sandman.

Romantic hot-air balloon rides start at R4595.

Budget-friendly gifts include deep-sea game-fishing trips off the St Lucia coast in KwaZulu-Natal for R895, or freefalling for 40m from the Orlando Towers in Soweto, south of Johannesburg, for R455.

Weird and wonderful

But doing your holiday shopping online is not just about dodging the crowds anymore. Expert shoppers say it's where the zany and most unusual gifts are to be found - from naming a star after a loved one to buying a meal for an orphaned penguin chick.

Tonya Vaughan, who owns Nameastar.com, said the trend of naming a star after a loved one has become popular.

For customers in South Africa a star is chosen that is visible from here, and people can place orders on the website.

For about R200 the company will e-mail an electronic certificate with the name of the selected person on it.

"It's an opportunity to immortalise a loved one," said Vaughan.

Charitable presents

Gifts4Good online store offers gifts from R50 to R1000, including splashing out on fish to feed an orphaned penguin chick, a birth certificate for a child orphaned by HIV, or animal therapy for a disabled child.

Clothing and novelty gift specialists Big Blue say their Esempowenis T-shirts - also known as the Black Simpsons - are flying off the shelves.

Source: Sunday Times