Leaving the Bay of Islands for Northland’s white-sand peninsula: A return to the top end of Aotearoa New Zealand’s North Island — AFTER the Bay of Islands and Kerikeri, which I blogged about in February, the next major attraction on the coast, off State Highway 10, is Taupō Bay, within the wider Whangaroa Bay, which you can see at the right of the map below. It’s a bit off the beaten track…

The Lonely Winter Beaches of Christchurch’s Pegasus Bay — FROM the New Brighton Spit, Te Karoro Karoro (‘the seagulls chatter’), a long sweep of sandy beaches curves northward past Christchurch to form the roughly 40 km-wide Pegasus Bay. When I visited Christchurch in July 2023, I decided to spend some time on these beaches, even though it was the…

Historic bays, hills, and modern walkways — BANKS Peninsula is an eroded volcano, originally an offshore island, which possesses several natural harbours today. The biggest harbours on the peninsula are Lyttelton Harbour or Te Whakaraupō (‘the harbour of the raupō reed’) just south of Christchurch, which contains the port of Lyttelton, and Akaroa Harbour further east, on…

Back, after two years, to a city that just keeps getting smarter — THIS July, 2023, I drove my newly-acquired Nissan Elgrand campervan to Christchurch, also known as Ōtautahi or Ōtautahi Christchurch, for repairs, and to catch a plane to Auckland. (Like many places in Aotearoa New Zealand, Christchurch is in the process of acquiring a Māori name, a renaming that is more…

Nordic Skiing Downunder (Part 2) — Part One ends with a promise to look at the history of skiing; after which I resume my adventures! ACCORDING to ancient rock drawings and other evidence, skiing has been practiced for at least eight thousand years. The first written accounts of skiers that are known to exist are in…

How to hike away from it all, even in New Zealand’s Tourist Capital — QUEENSTOWN is notorious for being crowded in normal times, and getting crowded once more. Yet there are quiet places that you can get away to, including really scenic backcountry tracks that aren’t so well known. Here are five areas that you might want to explore, in addition to walks that…

Nordic Skiing Downunder (Part 1) — NEW ZEALAND has many Alpine ski fields, but only one Nordic ski field, called Snow Farm. It’s in the middle of the following aerial image of the Queenstown-to-Wānaka area of the South Island. What is the difference? Well, one is on mostly steep slopes and the other is mostly on…

A classic gem of a mountain location, where you could easily spend a fortnight — MY first tramp into Tititea/Mount Aspiring National Park was with the Upper Clutha Tramping Club, a group of older farmers based out of Wānaka. All of them were between 70 and 85 years old, so I was easily the youngest of the group! We began our tramp into the Matukituki…

Matchstalk figures amidst the snow — The Remarkables are a range of mountains that tower epically and in a Grand Teton-like way over Queenstown, New Zealand. You can see them from Coronet Peak, on the other side of the ‘Promised Land’.