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…
Category: Hotels
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…
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…
Riley Roxy’s First Trip Away! Cambridge’s Stunning Henley Hotel
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…
The Triumph Of Rotorua Canopy Tours – Where Conservation & Adventure Tourism Meet
To be consistently ranked the number one outdoor activity 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 Canopy Tours…
See Inside The Top Suite At The Chateau Tongariro, + The Stunning Walks Surrounding The Hotel
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…
Why Whanganui Is New Zealand’s Most Misjudged City – My Top 50 Photos
There are underrated towns and cities in New Zealand and then there’s Whanganui. Part of the entire reason for the existence of the Roxborogh Report is to highlight the overlooked and the underrated, but I’m not sure I’ve ever written about a destination quite as misjudged as this city of 45,000 in the western lower…
Is This NZ’s Prettiest Boutique Hotel? – Our Return To Tauranga’s French Country House
My first visit to Tauranga’s French Country House was as a bachelor who was about to have a eureka moment, the second was a year later for the marriage proposal and the third was another couple of years after that with a baby on the way. Now that’s clearly the short version of the story, but…
Cloudy Bay Open ‘The Shed’ In Central Otago: My NZ Herald Article + Top 60 Central Otago & Fiordland Photos
Forgive me. I’m not sure if there’s any other travel writing trip I’ve taken that’s had me apologising to so many people, so let me start by asking your forgiveness from the get-go! Once you read my NZ Herald article and see the photos below it will make sense – this was a very jealous-making little adventure….
Why Sydney’s Rolling Stones & Star Wars Exhibitions Were So Brilliant – My NZ Herald Article + Top 50 Sydney Photos
“Do you want to go to Sydney to cover a Rolling Stones exhibition and a Star Wars exhibition?” So came the question from my editor and if memory serves me correctly, I gave my first ‘yes’ at “Sydney”, my second ‘yes’ at “Rolling”, and was up to about ‘yes’ number six or seven by the…