Three times the size of New Zealand’s far more famous Waiheke Island, Great Barrier Island is one of the last great wilderness areas of the country’s upper North Island. At 285-square kilometres (compared to Waiheke’s 92-square kilometres) and with a population of just 1000, Great Barrier is widely thought of as New Zealand as New Zealand used to…
12 Months Of NZ Herald Concert Reviews, Including A “Profound” Paul McCartney, An “Extravagant” Queen + Adam Lambert, A “Bonkers” Katy Perry & An “Unexpectedly Poignant” Cher.
12 months ago I started reviewing concerts for the New Zealand Herald. Not every week and not even every month, but on average, every couple of months I’d find myself with pen and notepad at a gig by one of the biggest artists of all time. Tough job but someone has to do it! So,…
Sampling High-Rise Airbnb Luxury In Melbourne… While Dressed As Worzel Gummidge
Who flies all the way to another country for a themed dress-up birthday party and gets the theme wrong? It’s a question I’ll most likely ask myself for the rest of my life, though the answer is easy: me. But how did this travesty happen!? It was my dear friend Georgie’s 30th bash in Melbourne…
Every Bee Gees Album Ranked From 22-1
“I love them all!” “There’s no such thing as a worst!” All things repeatedly heard from diehard Bee Gees fans whenever the matter comes up of ranking the collected works of the brothers Gibb. With an international career of LP releases spanning the 34 years from 1967 to 2001, the Bee Gees were one of popular music’s…
From Elephants In The Wild To Cricket By The Sea – My Top 60 Sri Lanka Photos
Sri Lanka is one of those those hot travel destinations right now that everyone seems to be talking about. As a cricket fan and lover of the tropics, Sri Lanka had been on my radar for several years, but when my wife said it was at the top of her must-visit list, we decided to…
Singapore’s M Social Hotel – A Robot Who Delivers Direct To Your Room!
I’ve always loved Singapore. With seven years in nearby Kuala Lumpur in the 80s, Singapore has so many of the same smells, sights and sounds that transport me right back to that Southeast Asian childhood. As I recently wrote in my weekly New Zealand Herald ‘Travel Bugs’ column: “I never understood why some people think Singapore…
Katy Perry Live Review: Her “Bonkers” Auckland Concert, August 2018 – NZ Herald
With all the excitement of Pink’s just finished, record-breaking run of seven sold out New Zealand concerts (six in Auckland and one in Dunedin), it’s easy to forget that another female superstar of the same generation was also in town at almost the exact same time. If we wind the clock back about three years, it…
The Big Red Bash 2018: My Top 50 Photos Of The World’s Most Remote Music Fest, + Why John Farnham & Daryl Braithwaite Think Millennials Go Crazy Over Them
In July I was invited to the deepest depths of the Australian Outback to cover the self-described “most remote music festival in the world”, Queensland’s Big Red Bash. With John Farnham the headline act and fellow Aussie baby boomer star Daryl Braithwaite also on the bill, I went to the towering sand dunes on the…
Farewell To Aretha Franklin – The Heartbreaking Song Her Sister Wrote For Her
10 years ago I was in Melbourne and stumbled into this amazing little vintage clothes shop in a basement somewhere in the central city. Flicking through the stock, it was such a relief to finally find a place that sold music T-shirts beyond the usual suspects of Bob Marley, Led Zeppelin, Metallica and the Rolling…
A Food Festival On 1 Of The World’s Largest Coral Islands – The KaiNiue Food Fest
I’ve never been to Niue and it’s on my list. A Pacific Island nation that sits on one of the largest coral islands in the world (Niue is roughly the same size as the island of Penang in Malaysia at 261 square kilometres), a population of just 1600, a mild tropical climate where average daytime…
Great Southern Land: The Soundtrack To An Aussie Outback Road Trip – My NZ Herald Article
On Monday I’ll be returning to the Queensland Outback so here’s a recent piece of mine the New Zealand Herald published about my ‘roo-dodging, Aussie-soundtracked road trip there back in 2016: New Zealand Herald, May 6, 2018: ‘Brisbane – Way beyond the beach’ As the title suggests, this was “way beyond the beach”. As in,…
21 Different Genres, 21 Different Bee Gees Songs – Barry Gibb Gets His Knighthood
I’m so thrilled for Barry Gibb, or Sir Barry Gibb as he is now officially known. His knighthood was finally presented to him by Prince Charles a few hours ago (having been announced in December last year) with Barry joking to the future king about the difficulty in getting up from the stool he had to kneel…