We’re on the plane from Christchurch to Sydney, after a mixed time here. It is an outstandingly beautiful country, and one that needs more time to really appreciate, preferably on foot rather than from a car window. I am still kicking myself for listening to the enthusiastic Trailfinders guy, who talked me out of 3 […]
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The Kiwi is a type of bird that is native to New Zealand. It is also New Zealand’s national emblem. There are eight different regional species of kiwi in New Zealand – some of which have very small populations. Kiwis are flightless birds and so they need to protect themselves. Their colors are very dull, […]
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We followed the hoards of Chinese down the road from Rotorua to one of the North Island’s biggest draws – the hot springs and a precisely-timed, 9.30am geyser that is just slightly artificially created by adding baking soda or something. Still, it didn’t stop any of us form charging down there at the appointed hour […]
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One of my earlier posts bemoaned the fact that we hadn’t come across much authentic New Zealand – or Maori culture. We had watched the film ‘Whale Rider’, but this expression of a Maori cultural re-emergence was pretty much lost on us, until we happened upon the Kapa Haka, a biennial Maori festival that this […]
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The uniqueness of New Zealand’s birds and lack of native mammals extends to the sea. We were lucky enough to go to the only place in the world where you can see Hector’s dolphins, the smallest dolphins in the world. For years their numbers declined, due to harsh fishing practices, and due to their slow […]
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New Zealand was the last country to have been discovered, but was also the last to be formed. About 85 million years ago it broke away from Godwana, the super-continent that also contained Australia, Africa and India, and slowly it started to sink. It started out about half the size of Australia, but by the […]
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OK, I take it all back – New Zealand is fabulous! We love being in this compact, energetic little city, with its timelessly beautiful lake and mountains, and where everyone’s lives seem to revolve around the provision and receipt of thrills. We’ve jet-boated, luged down a mountain and gone on a long trail-ride together. Sacha […]
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Yes, New Zealand was the latest country, continent, or city to be inhabited by mankind. In fact, it only experienced homo sapiens about eight hundred years ago, with Australia having been inhabited from anywhere between thirty-two and fifty-two thousand years before. The main reason the ancestors of today’s Māori, the people who had originated in […]
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You aren’t going to believe this but Sacha, Momma, Luke and I all made really cool necklaces out of jade and then we three kids made some out of bone. It was at a jade-carving studio and it was awesome, with all the right equipment and everything! We felt just like professional stone-carvers! […]
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You know how most travel blogs talk about the glory of travel, the beauties to be unearthed and the deep, quasi-spiritual truths to be learned from different cultures? Well, this isn’t going to be one of those. I am going against all lore about the mystically beautiful, last-land-to-be-unearthed, New Zealand. Actually, it’s a bit pants. […]
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