FIFA Fever
Football fever (and let’s make it clear that I’m referring to soccer) is a disease less widespread in New Zealand than many other parts of the world. We always have identified ourselves as a rugby nation, although due to the physical demands of that game the number of New Zealanders who actually play it is […]
A Phantasmagorical Guest
Warbirds and Wheels is a very special museum located in the grounds of Wanaka airport. The collection features half a dozen vintage fighter planes, as well as many classic cars and motorbikes, but all of these may soon be outshone by one of the most famous and best loved cars in the world. Arriving […]
Rediscovering Port Chalmers
Once upon a time Port Chalmers was the third largest port in Australasia, and the birthplace of New Zealand’s modern export trade. Bypassed for nearly a century, it has benefited from (or suffered from, depending on your viewpoint) commercial rediscovery and reinvestment, but in a sense it is bypassed still, by thousands of cruise […]
The Miller’s Tale
The Langham is one of Auckland’s new breed of 5-star hotels. Its placement high on the Karangahape Ridge affords views across the central city and out to the Waitemata Harbour, as well as inland to Grafton, Mt Eden and Parnell. For 22 years this was the Sheraton, until new owners, a new name, and a […]
Queenstown – A Compendium
“Adventure Capital of the World”, the brochures are prone to gush, and for once this is not be the hollow claim of some bean-counting business association. Queenstown truly is packed with hundreds of thrills for thrill-seekers and spectacles for spectators, and in natural surroundings that are most definitely world class. I’ve long scoffed at the […]
Napier’s Deco Rated Internationally
February 18 – 22 will mark the 26th annual Tremain Art Deco Weekend held in Napier, on the North Island’s sunny east coast. ‘Weekend’ has become a misnomer – what was once a two day event has now swollen to a Wednesday through Sunday affair, and draws upwards of 40,000 visitors to the seaside city. […]
Town Out Of Time
Where the hell was he? Tex tilted his hat, shielding his burnished face from the low western sun, and squinted down the empty street. ‘WATERFALL MOUNTAIN’, read the lettering over the courthouse. He didn’t care, anyway. Saddle sore and weary from days on the trail, he ached for a drink, and his horse needed water. […]
Southern Shangri La: Discovering Queenstown
Then and Now Trekking north across the Waimea Plains in the spring of 1853, young Scottish explorer Nathanael Chalmers and his Maori guide, Chief Reko, struck the Mataura River and followed it inland. It’s hard to comprehend what he might have thought when they came across Lake Whakatipu, an 80 kilometre long Z-shaped glacial lake […]
The Canterbury Tales, Part 1
The heart of the South Island, Canterbury is New Zealand’s largest region. It boasts a breathtaking 42,000 square kilometre expanse of tussock grasslands and lowland rivers, climbing from the Pacific west coast into the Southern Alps, the island’s snowy spine. In part one of our feature, we make inroads into the outback… The Canterbury region […]
Last Port of Call – The Strange Fate of Fairmile 406
July 5th, 2006, Tauranga Harbour, New Zealand. The long slender hull of a World War II submarine chaser is hoisted by a pair of cranes and hangs, blackened by mildew and marine growth, raining putrid bilge water onto the dockside. Hours later, settled upon a monstrous steerable trailer, she was ready to begin the 150km […]
