A few years ago Neil and I decided to learn to sail. Like our rugby players, NZ sailors are often described as the best in the world and, whilst I’m never going to run around a pitch carrying an odd-shaped ball, there’s something attractive about chilling on the sunny deck of a boat as the […]
Tag: New Zealand
On the Roads
There are two roads out of Wellington. Yes: two. Sheffield, a similar sized city, has more than half a dozen arterial routes leading away from it (the majority into stunning countryside I might point out), not to mention various smaller ones which, if you’re local, you can use to escape the traffic on the main […]
Pou Herenga Tai
Pou Herenga Tai, the Twin Coast Cycle Trail, runs from Opua (Or-poo-a) to Horeke (Hoar-ay-kay) in the far north of New Zealand. It’s 80-odd km of mostly flat cycling along old railway routes and paper roads, a not too strenuous two-day ride across the narrowest east-west part of this country. You can start at either […]
I Walked Waiheke
In the country of my birth it’s easy to find a path into the outdoors. No matter what the terrain alongside the road, before long there will be a gate, or an opening in a wall, maybe a stile over a fence, an accompanying sign pointing away from tarmac and bearing the words Public Footpath. […]
Covid: The Return (Part 2)
At 10.13pm when both phones in the household go off with a note that neither of us recognises or has chosen, we know it’s not good news. That cold hand, the one that’s been around a lot the last few days, hovers over me, the hooded claw from Scooby Doo. I shiver, despite that I […]
Let It Snow!
Snow, like a lot in nature, can be a blessing and a curse. The curse, this morning in Ohakune, is that all roads out of the town are closed. The main road on one side is blocked by a couple of jack-knifed lorries and has been so since early morning; the other side we don’t […]
Waitonga Falls – Revisited
I miss snow. Growing up in Stocksbridge, Yorkshire, there were few winters we didn’t get a couple of good dumps and snowy streets were a regular sight. It was normal that cars would sit unused for part of the season, a thick layer of white frozen onto them. One year it was over three feet […]
New Zealand’s Mountain Town
Ohakune: with a permanent population of 1100 it would be a village in most parts of the world; in NZ it’s a small town. It’s typical of most in this country, the main street on a state highway and smaller streets of homes running off it. There are a few shops, servicing the homes within […]
Covid: The Return
If that sounds like a sad sequel to a bad B movie be assured that that is what it feels like. After 24 days of no new cases, a week of no active cases and an end to restrictions, we were all silently hoping our covid story was over. The words elimination and eradication were […]
On The Mountain: Waitonga Falls
I love walking in the open where I can see for miles. Despite the incredible vistas to be found here there’s not a lot of this type of walking in New Zealand, where the natural state of the landscape is mainly bush or lowland forest. There are, of course, some exceptions, but to get above […]
