Long overdue then this one! Seventeen years ago this week I was backpacking in the North Island of New Zealand. Across a brace of trips to New Zealand, I have backpacked the North Island and the South Island but not yet Stewart Island. I ended up in Rotorua where I have backpacked through twice. I Read more about Backpacking in New Zealand🇳🇿: My Night As Chief At Tū Te Ihi, Tamaki Maori Village[…]
“You’ll never see the end of the road when you’re travelling with me ” – Neil Finn (Crowded House). Looking at the 2,000 plus posts still to be converted from my written notebook to this website, I noticed that New Zealand occupies a bigger chunk of them than I expected so condensing is required. My two visits (2007, Read more about Backpacking in New Zealand: My Top 20 Memories[…]
It’s been a shocking eight years since my first trip to New Zealand and even five years since my second trip so the notebook still clogs up a list of 30 something posts still unwritten about this country of islands! I thought I’d get my food adventures in NZ typed up today and whacked into a Read more about Friday’s Featured Food: Top 5 Food Experiences in New Zealand[…]
Never underestimate the amount of FREE sightseeing you can do. Did you know that there are FREE museums all over the place, you just need to do your research beforehand. I used to go to museums a lot more than I do now, so these days I basically only go to FREE museums unless I Read more about Monday’s Money Saving Tips: FREE Museums[…]
As a random traveller I just don’t stick to obvious routes most of the time. Here I was cruising through New Zealand’s north island for the second time. The first was in 2007 on a round the world trip. The second was in 2010, when I popped over from Australia before heading to South America. Read more about Backpacking in New Zealand: Waihi Gold Mines[…]
Time for another post from one of my two trips to New Zealand. This time, a stop over in the town of Paeroa. Home of the world famous Kiwi drink, L and P. Or Lemon and Paeroa. Brown and yellow in colour the marketing for this drink, lush in taste. When in the north island Read more about Backpacking in New Zealand: L & P (Lemon and Paeroa)[…]
My fascination with ferries (and boats in general) hasn’t waned. The fascination began in childhood when we would have our family holidays on mainland UK. This meant getting in the car and getting the car ferry from Northern Ireland over to Scotland. Something we did manys a time. I loved travel from an early age. Read more about World Borders: Taking The Interislander Ferry From Picton (South Island) to Wellington (North Island), New Zealand[…]
It wasn’t the first time I left Auckland international airport. I had been there 3 and a half years earlier, flying that time to Kuala Lumpur, on an onward connection to the Chinese capital of Beijing. Here in 2010, I was slightly more worldly, more eager and infinitely more nervous. Nervous and excited all in Read more about Goodbye Oceania – Another Auckland Farewell[…]