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We’re settling into our digs at the lovely Kaitake Lodge. Little did we know that we’d have this whole fantastic mountaintop two-bedroom house to ourselves for our visit here to NZ’s west coast. The views stretch way, way out all the way to the sea, in between are impossibly green […]

I often try to think of the best way to summarize a trip. When Kent and I go on travel radio shows, they give us just a few minutes to make points. Likewise, a bunch of people will ask us about our trips but they aren’t really that interested in […]

The Blokart is a uniquely Kiwi invention. It’s like a three-wheeled go kart but instead of a smelly motor, it is propelled around the track by four meters of sail. I tried these out at Blokart heaven, with Garry Ingram piloting his own craft and shouting directions to me as […]

We met Blair Anderson from Waimarino Adventure Park and Kayak tours and proceeded in a van pulling four kayaks to Lake McLaren. It was getting dark, and that was good–we were there for a moonlight kayak and a chance to see the glow worms light up the inside of a […]

In the busiest day of our seven-day trip here to the North Island, we met Mere Mollard-Wharepapa, who guided us up her favorite playground, the legendary Mount Maunganui. This bulb-shaped mountain is located at the end of the sweeping Bay of Plenty, and is green all the way ’round. Sheep […]

Rebecca Crosby showed us around her family’s business today, and at age 24, she’s got a full plate. Rebecca runs the Papamoa Beach Top 10 Holiday Resort, here on the beach on the east coast of the North Island. We talked with Rebecca and her grandmum Thelma, a charming woman […]

Auckland harbor was the perfect place to set sail yesterday, with a stiff wind and sunshine all over. At home it’s about 5 degrees, so we are not missing much. Off to Papamoa today, a three-hour drive to the coast.

On the ferry over to Devonport, a peninsula about 15 minutes from downtown Auckland, the wind was whipping even though the sun was shining brightly. I knew that would bode well on my next excursion….sailing on an America’s Cup boat out in Auckland harbor with Sail New Zealand. I didn’t […]

We joined Sarah Keenan and Melissa Prentice for dinner at the Jervois Steak House on Ponsonby Road last night. These two women are media reps for NZ Tourism and Auckland Tourism, and they told us about their lives here in Auckland, the battle over Marmite versus Vegemite, and what it […]