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…
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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…
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Haven’t we been here before?? Hmmm…yes that’s right that place where something clicked and was once the place I described as my favourite place on earth. The city of Rotorua in New Zealand. From my visit there in 2007, I hadn’t actually meant to return to volcanic Rotorua and in fact did my best to…
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While in Los Angeles, USA on my round the world trip in 2007, I met a young Irish lady from Donegal, Emma McDaid. We enjoyed a very short evening of drinks and chat in the Venice Beach Cotel Hostel the night before my 14 hour flight to New Zealand. As it happened, Emma had just…
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I decided I should head south of Auckland and explore some more of the North Island. Obviously in the short time I was spending in New Zealand, it would be hard to see both islands, so I decided pretty swiftly I would leave the South Island out and do a mini tour of the North…
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