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…
Category: New Zealand
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…
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….
For Christchurch: U2’s ‘One’ And Why It Matters About The Word In The Song So Many Get Wrong
There’s a line in U2’s One that people always get wrong: “We’re one but we’re not the same / we get to carry each other…” “Get” being the key word. I remember Bono explaining this some years ago, pointing out that it’s a subtle but significant difference. If “we’ve got to carry each other” rather…
New Zealand’s Great Barrier Island – My Let’s Travel Mag Top 30 Photos From This ‘Last Great Wilderness’
Three times the size of New Zealand’s far more famous Waiheke Island, Great Barrier Island is one of the last great wilderness areas of the country’s upper North Island. At 285-square kilometres (compared to Waiheke’s 92-square kilometres) and with a population of just 1000, Great Barrier is widely thought of as New Zealand as New Zealand used to…
Sleeping In A Smurf House! Exploring Solscape In Raglan, Waikato
I always loved the Smurfs. I was even such a Smurf-geek as a kid that I’d set my weekday alarm early enough to watch the 6:30am episodes on TV2 before getting ready for school. The pre-pubescent version of myself often thought how cool it would be to have my own human-sized Smurf house. Well, fast-forward 25…
Waikato’s Slice Of Jurassic Park
A couple of weeks ago my wife and I took up an invitation to return to a guesthouse that sits on the edge of a forest some people say is the healthiest in all of New Zealand. Maungatautari is the name of a mountain in Waikato that most North Islanders would’ve driven past without probably…
Why We Chose The Hotel Grand Windsor For Our Wedding Night & Photos – My Concrete Playground Review
I’ve always been drawn to historic hotels, even if their glory days are behind them. Whether it’s a crumbling palace in India or a slightly faded ski lodge in the States, old hotels have so many stories to tell. But what about a historic building that originally wasn’t a hotel? Not only that, but when it…
Remember The Tired Old Copthorne In Downtown Auckland? It’s Now The Very Funky, Staycation-Worthy M Social
For years I’d walk past the Copthorne Hotel on the waterfront in downtown Auckland and think, “they either need to knock that down or spend millions doing it up”. It was a stunning location and for too long a tired, drab hotel in what seemed an unimaginative piece of 1970s architecture. Then one day I…
E-Biking The Waikato River Trails – My NZ Herald Article + Top 20 Photos
A couple of weeks ago the New Zealand Herald published my article about e-biking the new Waikato River Trails. Click here to link to the article to find out why riding these trails was so much fun and why I think Waikato is one of the most underrated regions in New Zealand. Also read about a…
