October 15, 2024 It’s not a road trip without a road shot or several. So here we are, somewhere on SHI between Blenheim and Kaikoura. This section of road gets me every time. I love the hills from Blenheim and the coast along to Kaikoura. And every time I take way too many photos through … More Heading south again
17 November, 2023 It was raining when we woke up this morning, but that didn’t spoil the day. Started with breakfast at Chaos (our new favourite cafe), and then straight to the Govett Brewster in time for the 11.30 showing of the Len Lye kinetic sculpture Storm. Seeing the current Len Lye installations was a … More From Len Lye to Tupare
November 17, 2023 Well, it is raining today. Not unexpected. If anything, we thought the rain would set in yesterday. It was a good choice to do gardens yesterday and to leave the gallery until today. I can’t recall ever having described gardens as a good choice, but there you go. Describing gardens as a … More Gardens . . . and Len Lye
November 16, 2023 We visited two amazing gardens today, Pukeiti and Pukekura Park. These are big-scale gardens, more akin to botanic gardens, or a New Zealand twist on the grand landscape gardens of England, than the modest suburban gardens I’m used to. Pukeiti is a rhododendron garden set amid acres of temperate rainforest. I had … More Rainforest to rhododendrons
November 16, 2023 On the road again. Feels quite good, though as with the last trip the travel time, each day, is limited to three hours. I don’t enjoy driving as much as I used to. I guess somewhere along the way I got older. I particularly don’t like driving in traffic. I think the … More Small coastal cities
The last time we were in New Plymouth, just before the first Covid lockdown, we were entranced by the Len Lye kinetic sculptures at the Govett Brewster Art Gallery. So when we wanted a short week-day getaway in the limbo time of waiting for possession date for our new home, we decided to check out … More Highway 3 to New Plymouth
November 14, 2023 So here we are, on the road again. This time a short week day getaway to New Plymouth. But still within our self-imposed slow travel restrictions of two to three hours on the road on any one day. This is not an absolute rule, but one we have adopted to ensure we … More On the road again
April 18, 2022 Easter Monday, and what better way to spend it than a trip to Castlepoint. No particular reason other than it is a great place to visit, whatever the time of year. Today it was fine and warm (17 degrees) but extremely windy. There has been some big weather recently which has taken … More Castlepoint
Here we are again, in full Level 4 lockdown as a result of a community outbreak of the delta variant of Covid-19. Most of the current 51 cases are in the Auckland region, but there are also, worringly, five in the Wellington region. The good news is that those investigated so far have a genomic … More Retrospectively . . .
Off Highway One 