Posts in Category: Oceania
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Te Wahipounamu – South West New Zealand
Te Wahipounamu – South West New Zealand are the Maori and English names for one of the largest and most spectacular UNESCO World Heritage Sites on the planet (for brevity’s sake I’ll just refer to it as Te Wahipounamu hereafter). Covering a full ten percent of the land mass of the country, it contains four […]
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South Island New Zealand with Adventures Abroad
This is the first of a number of posts from New Zealand’s South Island which Alison and I visited on a March 2025 Adventures Abroad tour led by the one and only Chris Tripodi. In the last post I described the highlights of two visits to the capital city of Wellington. In this post I’m […]
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Wellington – New Zealand’s Quaint & Happening Capital
The title of this post may seem at first glance to be contradictory. How can a place be both quaint and happening at the same time; yet that’s exactly how Alison and I felt about Wellington on our two visits to New Zealand’s capital city. The quaintness comes from its very Victorian appearance that includes […]
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Lake Taupo and Other North Island Wonders
This is the third full day of the March 2025 Adventures Abroad New Zealand tour and if it’s anything as action packed as yesterday’s Maori themed events, it will be something to remember. We will be travelling from Rotorua through the most volcanic area of the country on a portion of the Thermal Explorer Highway […]
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A Maori Welcome – Glowworms, Geysers & More
It is the second full day of the March 2025 Adventures Abroad tour of New Zealand led by our friend Chris Tripodi, the world’s cheeriest guide. On the first day we explored New Zealand’s dynamic metropolis Auckland, visiting a number of different neighbourhoods, climbing Mount Eden to view the city from its highest point and […]
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Cape Reinga and Waipuoa Forest
This is my fourth and final post from New Zealand’s amazing Northland Peninsula, an area usually overlooked by international tourists, to their detriment as I explained in this post from the Bay of Islands. For Canadians and Nova Scotians in particular, the town of Waipu, founded by Scots from New Scotland, should be a must […]
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Bay of Islands – Exploring New Zealand’s Northland
In this post Alison and I are going to explore a small part of the very northern tip of the North Island of New Zealand, an area called, not surprisingly, just Northland. I have already put up two posts from Northland, one on the Nova Scotian founded settlement of Waipu and another on the Top […]
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Auckland – New Zealand’s Oceanic Metropolis
Almost 40% of all the people in New Zealand live in the Auckland metro area, making it one of the most dominant cities vis a vis the country as a whole and the city next in line, of any country in the world. Christchurch, the second largest city at just under 400,000 is less than 25% […]
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Kauri Cliffs Hole by Hole
In my last post from New Zealand Alison and I visited the small town of Waipu which was founded by Nova Scotians almost 175 years ago. In this post we’ll make another Nova Scotia/New Zealand connection as we play the amazing Kauri Cliffs golf course to see how it compares with our own Cabot Cliffs, […]