Latest
D’Urville Island: Paradise with amenities
D’Urville Island/Rangitoto ki te Tonga in the Marlborough Sounds is the kind of place you visit to connect with nature, and you live there because you prize solitude and independence. About 50 people live there permanently, but there is a steady stream of visitors, fishing charters from Wellington and beyond, the historically curious, and nature…
Surprising Kaiapoi
Picture yourself in a boat on a river with shady green trees and cloudy blue skies. Hold on is the shout. You answer quite quickly, a man with fun in his eyes. I reckon a fast burst upriver in a jet boat with some fancy turns to get the adrenaline going is the most fun…
Why there’s never been a better time to check out the charms of Central Otago
Central Otago in summer is hot, relaxing, historically interesting, wonderfully scenic and full of activities, and most of those features continue into autumn. Queenstown was lively over the summer months, but nothing like its heady days when the place was packed with international visitors and Kiwis felt alienated by the crowds and the high prices.…
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USA
Memphis: City of two kings
Memphis, the biggest city in Tennessee, epitomises the old and new South of the United States. Once a major slave-trading centre, in the 1960s it was the focus of civil rights action. Dr Martin Luther King was assassinated there, and the National Civil Rights Museum in the city is his memorial. It has always been,…
Houston: space, history and food
Houston claims the honour of its name being the first word spoken on the moon. Remember what Neil Armstrong said: “Houston, the eagle has landed.” Today the Houston Space Centre isn’t nearly as important as it once was because the space programme isn’t as important as it once was. It is still the Texan city’s…
Europe
Lyon: a culinary gem amid a violent history
Lyon is a gem of a city. Set on a hilly site, it’s where the Rhône and Saône rivers meet – making it a it a natural military and commercial and an attractive location in its own right. Its long history dates back to Roman times when it was called Lugdunum and was the capital…
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Berlin, the sexy city that’s full of quirks and contrasts
Berlin never reached the heights of other imperial capitals in the age of empires. Even today it compares poorly both with other capital cities in Europe and with other German cities like Munich, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Cologne. As a united country, Germany is young. It only became one country in 1871, after Bismarck’s forces crushed…
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New Zealand
D’Urville Island: Paradise with amenities
D’Urville Island/Rangitoto ki te Tonga in the Marlborough Sounds is the kind of place you visit to connect with nature, and you live there because you prize solitude and independence. About 50 people live there permanently, but there is a steady stream of visitors, fishing charters from Wellington and beyond, the historically curious, and nature…
Surprising Kaiapoi
Picture yourself in a boat on a river with shady green trees and cloudy blue skies. Hold on is the shout. You answer quite quickly, a man with fun in his eyes. I reckon a fast burst upriver in a jet boat with some fancy turns to get the adrenaline going is the most fun…
Why there’s never been a better time to check out the charms of Central Otago
Central Otago in summer is hot, relaxing, historically interesting, wonderfully scenic and full of activities, and most of those features continue into autumn. Queenstown was lively over the summer months, but nothing like its heady days when the place was packed with international visitors and Kiwis felt alienated by the crowds and the high prices.…
Continue Reading Why there’s never been a better time to check out the charms of Central Otago
Time to enjoy Bay of Plenty-ful beaches
It’s only 154 kilometres from Waihi Beach to Ohope Beach east of Whakatane, but the stretch of coast along the Bay of Plenty is full of wonderful beaches, history and things to do. I took five days to drive what is easily done in under three hours and explored every beach and more along the…
Australia
The Mystery of the 12 Apostles
What’s in a name? In the case of the 12 Apostles – eight 50-metre columns of limestone off the southern coast of Victoria, Australia and the state’s single biggest tourist attraction – quite a bit of a mystery. How did these majestic and much visited blocks of limestone near Campbelltown, the last stop on the…
Time out in Victoria
All roads to the Great Ocean Road pass through Geelong, once a bustling port and now an attractive retirement town. At Geelong, travellers can head due west on the inland road or take the more common route south west to the Victorian Riviera. We took some friends’ advice and went inland to avoid the holiday…
General
Kindness of strangers
Travelling’s easier when people go out of their way to help. Three incidents during my latest travels in the United States have reaffirmed my faith in the essential decency of human beings. I was travelling from Memphis to Nashville by Greyhound bus. I duly arrived at the terminal, handed over my suitcase to the loader…
Waiting for a train
It’s an old, red-brick building in less than well-cared-for condition; with a cavernous hall that used to be full of people when people went most places by train or bus, and a barbershop that has a sign on the street saying open, but the shop itself is very firmly closed. A gift shop is selling to…
Experience trumps expectation
Experience, it is said, is a great teacher. Given these four experiences I could have coped with ignorance. My wife and I set out from Wellington to New York – a long-planned trip. That was the easy bit. Here are four expectations we made, make that I made, that were not met. One: If it’s…
Abby’s tale
When I first saw her she was huddled in a near tearful conversation with another young woman of about her age, seeking comfort, information and reassurance, but clearly getting none of those. The first girl – I’ll call her Abby, although throughout our brief encounter I never knew her name – was clearly distressed about…
Marijuana: a legal, policy and administrative proble
Back in 1970s New Zealand, idealistic young reformers saw marijuana as a wonderful recreational drug which enhanced other experiences like eating, drinking, sex, music, images and the enjoyment of nature. They campaigned for its legalisation, and in the utopian state they envisaged, big tobacco companies were the enemy and wouldn’t be allowed to sell marijuana.…
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The Treaty of Waitangi and the 1835 Declaration of Independence
With Waitangi Day on 6 February, some attention will focus on the status and relevance of the Treaty of Waitangi in modern times, and on whether it is the founding document of our country. Some claim that the 1835 Declaration of Independence of the United Tribes of New Zealand is a better model for relations…
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