Last week the New Zealand Herald published the third and final chapter of my southern India adventure from October 2014. Based on Intrepid Travel’s 16 day “South India Unplugged” tour, this was one of the most intense, wild, mayhemic and beautiful travel experiences of my 10-year travel writing career. The events of the article…
Tag: Travel
Let’s Travel Magazine Articles To Kuala Lumpur & Lake Tekapo
Standing outside my childhood home in Kuala Lumpur. The latest issue of NZ’s #1 travel mag Let’s Travel is out and it has two of my articles. On pages 50-53 is my tale of going back to my childhood home of Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. And by home, I also mean literally in the sense…
Waitomo Road Trip In The New V6 Holden VFII – 10 Photos Including The World Famous #Casuallean
Holden’s new VFII. Just two days out from a road trip to Waitomo in the central North Island for Let’s Travel Magazine (New Zealand’s #1 travel mag – for more go to letstravelmag.com) my car broke down. My trusty, unspectacular, 1600cc 2001 VW Golf station-wagon just conked out. There was also some weird problem with…
New Zealand’s Only Tea Estate: Zealong Tea + A Luxury Waikato Farm Stay
Statues at the Zealong Tea Estate. Turns out in all of New Zealand there is only one solitary tea estate. In a country famed for agriculture, horticulture and our basic enthusiasm for growing stuff, we don’t make any of the product so many of us drink on a daily basis. That is, all except for…
Road Trippin’ Through Tauranga & Coromandel In A Brand New Holden Commodore VFII – Top 10 Photos Of The Car
The Holden Commodore VFII – the French Country House Tauranga behind. It’s the first time I’ve ever driven a car without having to put the keys in the ignition. I know this is technology that’s been around for more than just a little while, but when you normally drive a 1600cc 2001 VW, the novelty…
Why Robin Williams Loved Rotorua – Top 50 Rotorua Photos Incl. The Black Swan Boutique Hotel
Rotorua’s Black Swan Boutique Hotel. When Robin Williams died, one of the best stories to come through to my Newstalk ZB radio show was from a Kiwi couple who’d once bumped into the actor in Rotorua. They were riding their mountain bikes through the city’s famed Redwood Forest (5600ha, officially named Whakarewarewa Forest) and had taken…
Waikato’s Stunning Blue Spring – 12 Photos From 1 Of NZ’s Hidden Gems
The Blue Spring, Waikato Said smugly, I’ve been raving on about The Blue Spring in the Waikato for months now. Not like these Johny-Come-Blue-Spring-Latelys at Stuff.co.nz who’ve today asked the question: “Is it NZ’s best kept secret?” Months! Four to be exact. But still, months! Truth be told, like most Kiwis I’d never heard of…
My Top 50 Favourite Photos Of 2015 – A Travel Writer’s Year In Review Including Fiji, Australia, Malaysia & New Zealand
Monkey Bay, Tioman Island, Malaysia. 2015 had me swashbuckling / cramping up embarrassingly through Malaysian jungles, spearfish snorkeling / ripping my swim-shorts in the butt-crack region in Fiji and hiking the lush and rocky landscapes of Victoria’s Grampians National Park. While getting chased by a kangaroo. For every premature self back-pat, something unexpected or awkward…
Summer At The Chateau – My Top 50 Photos From 1 Of NZ’s Most Iconic Hotels
Summer at The Chateau. With the New Zealand Herald publishing my article on what is arguably the most famous hotel in New Zealand – The Chateau in Tongariro National Park – I thought I’d head on back. Why not! Only this time it was with the idea of doing a Summer At The Chateau photo…
3 Days In Wellington – What To Do, Where To Stay & My Top 50 Photos
Oriental Parade. I wonder if there are other major cities in the world with the unofficial slogan “you can’t beat it on a good day.” Because Wellington is not alone in being beautiful when the weather is nice, just think of northern rival Auckland along Tamaki Drive with the sparkles of the harbour and the…
Hobbiton Top 40 Photos + The Thigh-busting Wairere Falls
Outside Bilbo Baggins’ hobbit hole, Hobbiton. I’d held off visiting the preserved movie set of Hobbiton for two main reasons. One, at $79 for an adult it’s not exactly cheap. And two, New Zealand’s full of pleasant – let’s be honest, sometimes pleasantly dull – rolling farm country. Why pay for it when you can…
Where To Stay In Waikato If You Love Luxury And Gardens – Sarnia Park And The Acclaimed Hamilton Gardens
The lobby and grand staircase at Sarnia Park. As I continue my unexpected crusade to challenge the notion Waikato is less interesting than the rest of New Zealand, I was invited back to the province last week. I say “unexpected” because it’s a part of the country I’ve been to a million times for family…
