A couple of weeks ago the Herald On Sunday published my feature article on Tioman Island in Malaysia. In case you missed it, here’s the link: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/travel/news/article.cfm?c_id=7&objectid=11639305 In the article you’ll hopefully get a sense of why I love this island so much and keep finding myself going back. There’s also an incident involving monkeys,…
Category: Hotels
Oregon Top 50 Photos: Exploring America’s Hippest City + 1 Of Its Greatest Ski Resorts
Skiing at Timberline, Mt Hood, Oregon. Driving in falling snow, dog-sled riding, skiing the mountain with longest season in all of North America, staying in the hotel made famous by the film The Shining and hiking a valley almost as breathtaking as the Grand Canyon, last month’s Oregon road trip for Let’s Travel magazine was…
Mangarara Eco Lodge, Hawke’s Bay: My Top 50 Photos From A Very Different Sort Of Farm
Standing with my head dangerously close to the cow’s buttocks, I’d been assigned the task of attaching the suction cup apparatus to the teats. I hadn’t milked a cow since the 80s and it was oddly satisfying how each cup would so neatly swallow their assigned teat. Equipment attached and with a brief surge of…
Why ‘Bayview At 91’ Is The Place To Stay In Whitianga + My Top 40 Coromandel Photos
You’d think there’d be more of a song and dance about one of the initial landing spots for Captain Cook in New Zealand. After the first-placed Cook Landing Site Historic Reserve on Kaiti Beach Road in Gisborne, the evidently humble, picturesque spot of Simpsons Beach in the Coromandel is right up there historically for the adventures…
Tauranga’s French Country House: Why You Don’t Need To Be Beachside – Top 50 Photos Including Waterfalls, Forests & The Mount
The view towards Mount Mauganui from the French Country House, Tauranga. I wanted to stay by the beach. It was January, the middle of the Kiwi summer, and not only that, I was going to be in one of the most iconic seaside destinations in New Zealand – Tauranga / Mount Maunganui. Only problem was, everybody…
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…
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…
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…
