Having enjoyed several of NZ Adventures’ excellent South Island four-wheel-drive trips, when the opportunity arose to join a North Island ‘Heartland’ tour, we jumped at the chance. En route to Feilding, where the trip was to begin, we detoured past Piopio where we’d heard of some amazing rock formations and an attractive waterfall. Our four-wheel-drive [...]
The pulse of the port city of Tauranga is Mount Maunganui, or Mauao to local tangata whenua. The extinct volcano sits at the tip of a narrow finger of land which has a long sandy beach on the ocean side, while on the inland side Pilot Bay is a calm harbourside beach near the entrance [...]
The end of the 2020 year came fast and furious with two magazine deadlines, and an impromptu wedding between the Rock and his Robyn (me), after 26 years together. This prompted us to organise a long weekend in the town of my birth, Rotorua, for a bit of time away to stay, play and enjoy [...]
You can see the green-blue silhouette of Moutohorā/Whale Island from all along the coast of the eastern Bay of Plenty. Nine kilometres offshore, it’s a much-loved icon. That distance used to be about as close as most people could get to Moutohorā, but no longer. White Island Tours now cruises to the island for a [...]