From the Helipad Bar, downtown KL. One month ago today I touched down again in the city I grew up in. My family was in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from June 1983 to December 1990 before returning to Auckland, New Zealand when I was nine years old. Even after a quarter of a century, it’s amazing…
Category: Travel
Return To Nazri’s Place – Top 50 Photos From Malaysia’s Tioman Island, 2015
Nazri’s Place, Air Batang, Tioman Island. This time exactly two weeks ago I was in the middle of a sweat-drenched 10-kilometre walk on an island Time Magazine once described as one of the 10 most beautiful in the world. Sure, that title was bestowed back in the 70s and Malaysia’s Tioman Island has dined out…
Victoria, Australia Top 50 Photos – Kangaroos, Koalas & Cockatoos
Here are my top 50 favourite photos from last week’s five-day jaunt across Victoria in Australia. This was thanks to Tourism Victoria and the Herald On Sunday and was a fun revelation in terms of all the other things to see in the state beyond Melbourne. As for Melbourne itself, it’s undeniably one of the…
Top 50 Vancouver Photos 2010 – 5 Years On From Living In Canada
From the Vancouver Rowing Club with CBD skyscrapers the backdrop. Exactly five years ago I boarded a 14-hour Auckland-Vancouver flight as part of my year and a half long OE (Kiwi-speak for “overseas experience”). There’s been plenty of travel before and since the 2010-2011 OE, but that period was the only time I’ve had completely…
NZ Herald South India Articles – Part 1 Of 3 – The Beaches, Backwaters & Hidden Charms Of Kerala
An old rice-boat converted into a floating boutique hotel. Here’s the link to the first in my trio of New Zealand Herald articles about my Intrepid Travel / Flight Centre adventure to the south of India late last year. I’ve told friends and family, as well as my Newstalk ZB listeners, a lot about the…
My Herald On Sunday Kauri Cliffs Feature – One Of The Premier Golf Resorts In The World
The Lodge at Kauri Cliffs. The Herald On Sunday published my two-page spread on Kauri Cliffs today and if you click here you can link to the Herald’s Travel section to read it. Kauri Cliffs is a 5-star, luxury resort in New Zealand’s Bay of Islands with a golf course so stunning it has been ranked…
Historic 5-Star Boutique Northland Lodge For Sale – The Beautiful Waipoua Lodge
Hokianga Harbour, just north of the Waipoua Forest. Late last month I returned to a place that feels as much like visiting old friends as it does like staying in a 5-star, boutique lodge. The Waipoua Lodge sits on the edge of arguably New Zealand’s finest subtropical tract of bush, the Waipoua Forest. A part…
Kauri Cliffs Top 50 Photos – Why It’s About So Much More Than Golf
In an upcoming two-page spread in the Herald On Sunday I’m writing about why Kauri Cliffs in Matauri Bay, Northland, New Zealand is about so much more than golf. Rated by Golf Digest as the 39th best course in the world, Kauri Cliffs is also one of the most exclusive retreats in the country. Somehow…
Cruising The Backwaters Of Kerala In A Rice Boat – My Latest Let’s Travel Magazine Article, South India
The new issue of New Zealand’s premier travel magazine Let’s Travel includes an article of mine about an Intrepid Travel tour I did featuring India’s famous Kerala backwaters. Click here to link to Let’s Travel’s website, or find them on Facebook at Facebook.com/letstravelmag. The article is pay-walled so do subscribe or download the digital version….
Why Fiji’s Mango Bay Resort Was Just What I Wanted
A beachfront bure at Mango Bay Resort. Going to Fiji on a Monday and coming back on a Friday seemed like one of those half-baked, I-haven’t-had-enough-sleep ideas I was surely going to talk myself out of. And yet it progressively seemed less and less silly. There were soon-to-expire air-points to get me there, the cheap…
A Monk, A Motorbike Crash & A Mad Mission To Deliver School Books – Adventures In Laos 2010
Phosit’s school and its soccer pitch, near Vang Vieng. The following is based on an email I sent to family and friends nearly five years ago in June of 2010. It details how a motorbike crash in Laos became a defining moment in several months of backpacking throughout South East Asia. And beware of fake…
Java Top 50 – My Favourite Photos From The Most Populated Island On The Planet
It’s exactly five years since I set foot on the most populated island in the world, Java in Indonesia. For a slither of land that’s comparable in size to New Zealand’s South Island, Java is somehow home to 143 million people as opposed to the South Island’s one million*. And yet Java remains one on…
