Napier is always hard to leave. Okay, so I was born here, but I’m not biased … honest! There’s just something about this place. It’s the perfect concoction of environment, climate and culture, all wrapped up in a town that’s small enough to wander around with ease but big enough so that it’s pretty hard [...]

Here in the Hawke’s Bay caffeine-lovers are spoilt for choice. Aside from the wineries, boutique breweries (anyone for fresh cider?), distilleries and fruit growers the region is famous for, it’s easy to find a first-class coffee.
Usually when I’m visiting Napier I head to Ujazi in the centre of town, but friends have told me I [...]

We grip the handrails, the driver eases on the throttle and we pull out into the river, grins plastered across our faces as we gain speed and the spray whips up around the boat. We’re here to celebrate the official launch of Adventure Jet at Terrace Downs, a breath-taking jet boat tour in the quiet [...]

Late afternoon and Raglan, in western Waikato, swelters quietly under a blue furnace of sky. Strains of Irish folk music hang in the air and a couple of young Irish guys wander past with surfboards under their arms, discussing the surf in their poetic accents.
It is Saint Patrick’s Day and it is quite fitting that [...]

Okay, so right now I am juggling my laptop and a cup of tea, absorbed in the gloriously soulful combination of Radiohead’s In Rainbows (totally thrashing it and totally loving it!) and crickets in the trees. I am sitting in the dark; all the better to indulge in the splendid sight of Auckland’s Sky Tower [...]

Do you like good coffee? Do you like fantastic food? What if I said you could have both of these and the feel-good factor that comes from eating organic vegetarian fare? Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a full-time vegetarian, but I happily forgo bacon and steak whenever I visit my favourite little café at [...]

Paihia is hot, hot, hot! Literally. Here in the Bay of Islands it is bikini weather, quite frankly, and I’m a little envious of the girls toting their beach bags and flip-flopping in their jandals down the footpath, heading for the sands of Te Ti Beach (just a quick walk around the headland from Paihia [...]

This morning I headed north to Orewa, crossing the Auckland Harbour Bridge as the sun hauled itself up in the east and cast an apricot light over the boats moored off Devonport. By the time I’d driven the length of Auckland’s Northern Motorway the tint had burnt off, leaving behind a hot clear day – [...]

Ahoy, dear reader! We are off to the Auckland International Boat Show! Now, I would be first to admit that I am not the most technically savvy boat enthusiast – all that talk of fore and aft leaves me quite giddy! – but I do appreciate the boats themselves. Especially here in Auckland on a [...]