Our Drive to the Cape Reinga Lighthouse
Cape Reinga Lighthouse is one of New Zealand’s most iconic natural and cultural landmarks. It’s where an often visible clash of currents from the Tasman Sea and Pacific Ocean converge, often creating shifting lines and swirls in the water below. This natural phenomenon is both striking and symbolic. For us, the lighthouse provided an excellent […]
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Finding More of New Zealand’s History
We expected that today would be an easy drive from Whangarei to Kaitaia in Far North New Zealand. It was certainly an intersting day in which we spent lots of time at some special places along the way. We expected to arrive at or overnight destination by mid afternoon but we didn’t arrrive until after […]
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Our Lazy Day Around the Harbour and to the Waterfall
After eight days on the road, we decided that today would be a lazy day. There is not a real lot to do around Whangareii so it didn’t matter if we spent some time this morning doing personal tasks such as lying in bed and doing some washing. Eventually, we decided to head around the […]
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Travelling North Along The Coast
Yesterday, we were reminded of the value of getting off the highway and following minor roads. We found some nice beaches and lovely scenery away from the Motorway and instead, along the original highway to the north of New Zealand. We left Auckland on the motorway that crosses the harbor bridge in quite dense traffic […]
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Sightseeing in Auckland
Auckland is a large, world class metropolitan city, with an urban population of about 1,547,000 – about 1/3 of New Zealand’s total population. More people live in this city than the whole of the South Island. The Auckland landscape is dotted with 53 volcanic sites. This area was first settled in around 1350 and was […]
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Some History on Waitangi Day
Today is Waitangi Day. It commemorates a very important event where a treaty was signed between the British Crown and Maori Tribes to create the founding document that essentially created New Zealand as a nation. Our travels today didn’t provide for much exploring but by accident, we came across three sites that were important for […]
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Along the Forgotten World Highway
We left Stratford early this morning yesterday after visting ther local Woollworths store to pick up some sandwiches for lunch as we knew that there wouldn’t be any place to buy food along the way. A quick look in the rearview mirror showed that Mt Taranaki was free of cloud so we sought a viewpoint […]
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New Plymouth and Mount Taranaki
After two days of driving, we set yesterdayaside to explore the local area around Mount Taranaki and New Plymouth. We left our motel around mid-morning and drove about 30 kms to New Plymouth on the western coast. New Plymouth It is named after the English city of Plymouth, in Devon, UK from where the first […]
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Our First Day of Touring in NZ
Yesterday was a grey day with drizzle, interspersed with frequent heavy showers and very occasional patches of blue in the sky. There aren’t a great number of interesting sights in Palmerston North but before leaving, we scouted out the extensive, and quite beautiful, parklands and the city square with its tall clocktower. In the mid-19th […]
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We’ve Begun a New Driving Tour of New Zealand.
Yesterday, we left for our next driving tour of New Zealand. This time to the North Island. We’ve planned our route with a view of maximizing scenery, and optimizing, driving times and distances. We may deviate from this route, as we go, depending on our whims, the weather and the available scenery but this is […]
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Activities Around the Turn of the 20th Century – Part 2
These images are the second group of photos that I found on the State Library of Victoria’s website. I have downloaded them, edited and colourised them as illustrations of life around the turn of the 20th Century. You can find Part One of these images here: https://www.wilsons.id.au/activities-around-the-turn-of-the-20th-century-part-one/ Boating on the Yarra River at Fairfield was […]
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Activities Around The Turn of the 20th Century – Part One
It’s another hot day (44C) with strong winds and many bush fires burning throughout the state. It seems a bit surreal checking my emergency app and listening to the radio messages telling people to evacuate from many places. I’m keeping cool again with the air-con on and following up my post of Old Mebourne with […]
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