Picture this: you’re zipping up your cases and packing the car, checking out of your motel and pulling onto the road, negotiating the Auckland traffic and navigating your way onto the Northern Motorway. You’ve finally crossed the Harbour Bridge and now you realise that you’re in desperate need of coffee, at the very least, and [...]
To see the Glacier Hot Pools in Franz Josef lit up at night is a real treat. Believe me after a long day, the hot pools is the perfect place to unwind – there is even a massage room on hand.
The complex is surrounded by native bush and fed by glacier water, and the hot [...]
I really enjoyed my recent visit to Punakaiki, where I spent time seeing the famous Punakaiki Pancake Rocks and Blowholes. A really special place popular with national and international visitors alike, is on the wild West Coast of the South Island, approximately 30 minutes north of Greymouth.
There is one area at the Punakaiki Rocks known [...]
In New Zealand, the morning of 25 April always starts early for many. Today is ANZAC Day, the day on which New Zealanders commemorate the anniversary of the 1915 landing of New Zealand and Australian troops at Gallipoli during the First World War and pay homage to all those who have served in war efforts [...]
Top world guide book publisher Lonely Planet has come up with its first South Island guide book – with a difference; It includes 32 pages about the Wellington area.
This is about as novel and sincere as producing a travel book all about New Zealand, with a section on Sydney or Melbourne. The South Island alone [...]
Orana Wildlife Park staff saved four tiny Cheetah cubs last week from certain death by choosing to hand-raise the animals, owing to an inexperienced, first time Cheetah mother. Cheetah are notoriously difficult to breed in captivity and cubs have a 95% mortality rate in the wild. Orana’s cubs carry the most significant bloodlines in the [...]
As I made my way from coast to coast this weekend, I was excited to be travelling an unfamiliar path in my kiwi adventures. I’ve embarked on many trips from east to west of the south island, but all of my journeys have either taken me across the more central Arthur’s Pass or to the [...]
If you’re travelling by car with children, there are certain things you need to know. Where the public toilets are, for instance, and where you can find a café with a menu that caters to young diners. But when the cries of ‘are we there yet?’ and ‘how much longer?’ start in the backseat, the [...]
Forget the Trans-Siberian train journey and book yourself a ticket to ride on the TranzAlpine train here in New Zealand! Regarded as one of the world’s greatest scenic rail journeys, the TranzAlpine train operates daily between Christchurch and Greymouth, transporting passengers from one coast of the country to the other. Some use it as a [...]
It’s autumn in New Zealand and what better place for ‘leaf peeping’ than the oh-so-English village of Cambridge? Situated in the heart of the Waikato, a short drive south of Hamilton, Cambridge is the quintessential country town of this pretty pastoral region. Famous for antique stores, dairy cows and champion Thoroughbred racehorses, in this quietly [...]