When you think of the word “staycation”, chances are you’re picturing a night or two in a nice CBD hotel in the city in which you live. But when thoughts turn to treating yourself to some kind of retreat – the sort of place where you can be immersed in nature, hear the birds, go…
Category: Travel
The Bay Of Plenty’s Best Hidden Gems – My NZ Herald Feature
A huge part of the entire ethos of the Roxborogh Report is writing about hidden gems – be they in travel or music. Sometimes, those gems are hiding in plain sight. As in, the Bay Of Plenty already happens to one of the best known holiday regions in New Zealand – especially for Kiwis travelling…
Piha’s Jaw-Dropping Mercer Bay Loop Track With Riley Roxy In The Backpack
How is it you can be pushing 40, consider yourself outdoorsy, have lived in the same city roughly three-quarters of your life, and still find jaw-dropping walks you haven’t even heard of, let alone done? Well firstly, I’m grateful that’s the case given seemingly all I want to do these days is discover new walks…
Suva Has One Of The World’s Great Colonial Hotels & Too Few Kiwis Know About It – Reviewing The Grand Pacific Hotel
Always a sucker for a historic hotel, as soon as I heard Fiji’s 1914-built Grand Pacific Hotel had been given a multimillion dollar refurbishment to celebrate its centenary, I knew I had to go there. Five years on from that Suva stay and as we grapple with what tourism will be post-Covid-19, I wanted to…
The Surf, Sand, Scenery – Not To Mention Golf – Of Coromandel’s Matarangi Resort
I could wait until once the Covid-19 lockdown has finished to publish this article, but the dream of travel is something I’m all about right now. If nobody on Planet Earth can holiday at this precise moment in history – and realistically, nobody can – we shouldn’t deny ourselves the pleasure of a bit of…
Road-Tripping New Zealand’s Pacific Coast Highway In A Luxury Motorhome – My Top 50 Papamoa To Gisborne Photos
It’s one year since my wife and I baby-mooned up a storm while driving roughly 600-kilometres in a Mighway Motorhome from Papamoa to Gisborne and back again. We took what’s known as the “Pacific Coast Highway” for leg one, before taking the more direct route through the Waioeka Gorge for the return leg home. Both…
How The Bee Gees Got Me My Start In Radio (& Other Cracking Yarns) – Being Interviewed On Newstalk ZB’s ‘Real Life’
Last month I was interviewed on the Newstalk ZB show ‘Real Life With John Cowan’ where I got to indulge in my multiple obsessions with things like cricket, Malaysia and the Bee Gees. Specifically, how a childhood in Malaysia still shapes me as an adult, how cricket was crucial in making me love New Zealand, and how…
Luxury With A Conscience: Fiji’s Refurbished Shangri-La – My NZ Herald Review
Last week the NZ Herald published my ‘Room Check’ article about one of the oldest and largest luxury resorts in the South Pacific, Shangri-la’s Fijian Resort & Spa on the Coral Coast. Fresh from a US $50m refurb, the property – as located on its own causeway-linked private island – has everything from stunning white…
The Luxury Waikato Hotel That’s Like A Cross Between The Sound Of Music & The Secret Garden
Less than two-hours from Auckland lies a mansion in gorgeous Secret Garden-like surrounds with no less than six different locations you could choose for your wedding day. Or you could be like us and be in search of your first trip away as new parents and want somewhere awesome and special but also easy – oh…
A 5-Star Eco-Resort In Untouched Malaysian Jungle – Japamala On Tioman Island
I’ve lost count, but I’m pretty certain it’s rained all but three or four days in the past six weeks in Auckland. As the final month of an admittedly mild, but oh-so-wet winter limped to its depressing, soggy end, my mind’s been drifting back to the tropics and my favourite island in the world. Malaysia’s Tioman Island lies…
Why Rotorua Canopy Tours Is 1 Of The Best Zip-lining Adventures In The World
To be consistently ranked the number one outdoor activity on Tripadvisor in a city famous for exactly that is no mean feat. It’s even more impressive when you consider this is one of the most-touristed areas of one of the most bucket-list worthy destinations on the planet. So yes, it’s a big congratulations to Rotorua…
See inside the top suite at the Chateau Tongariro, + the stunning surrounding walks
There aren’t too many countries where you could quite safely and without too much debate name the absolute most famous hotel. Which is not to say there wouldn’t be some serious contenders. Perhaps the Ritz in London, maybe something like the Chateau Marmont in LA and certainly the Raffles in Singapore. But for every Ritz and Chateau Marmont…
