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Ramblings

Ramblings

Photos, travel stories, reportage and random stuff from New Zealand and around the world by Peter de Graaf

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Author: pdg

New Zealand 

Paparoa Track: NZ’s newest Great Walk

April 2, 2021May 29, 2022 pdg 0 Comments Blackball, Croesus Track, Greymouth, hiking, Moonlight Tops, Paparoa National Park, Paparoa Track, Pike River Mine, Pike29 Memorial Track, Punakaiki

A practical guide to Aotearoa’s 10th Great Walk and the tragic story behind it.

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New Zealand 

Walking the Queen Charlotte Track (the easy way)

March 3, 2021May 29, 2022 pdg 0 Comments Affinity Cruises, Anakiwa, Endeavour Inlet, Furneaux Lodge, hiking, Kenepuru Sound, Marlborough Sounds, Motuara Island, Picton, Queen Charlotte Track, Ship Cove

The 70km Queen Charlotte Track offers fabulous views — and plenty of options for walking in comfort — where land meets sea in the Marlborough Sounds.

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New Zealand Photos 

Top news photos of 2020

January 2, 2021January 2, 2021 pdg 0 Comments Battle of Kororāreka, coronavirus, Covid-19, Dame Whina Cooper, Haruru Falls, Kerikeri, Kerikeri Fire Brigade, Moerewa, Ngātokimatawhaorua, Otiria, Otiria Marae, Panguru, Project Island Song, Tai Tokerau Border Control, Waitangi, wētāpunga

A global pandemic, iwi-led Covid checkpoints, Waitangi Day festivities, politics, record-breaking rainfall, floods and fires — 2020 had it all.

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Caucasus Photos 

Armenia in pictures

October 10, 2020March 3, 2021 pdg 0 Comments Areni, Armenia, Astrakh, Azerbaijan, Debed Canyon, Geghard, Haghpat, Lake Sevan, Mt Ararat, Nagorno-Karabakh, Noah, Norovank, Sanahin, Tatev, Yerevan

An ancient land sprinkled with 1000-year-old stone churches, Armenia is sliding back to war with its neighbour Azerbaijan over a disputed territory.

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Asia Photos 

Laos in pictures

September 27, 2020April 11, 2021 pdg 2 Comments Attapeu, Laos, Luang Prabang, Mekong River, Plain of Jars, Si Phan Don, Vang Vieng, Vientiane

Laos doesn’t have the big tourism drawcards of its better-known neighbours — but that’s all the more reason to visit this slow-paced, smile-filled land.

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Caucasus Photos 

Azerbaijan in pictures

August 9, 2020October 4, 2021 pdg 0 Comments Azerbaijan, Baku, Lahic, Lahij, Lenkeran, Qobustan, Şeki

Unspoiled mountain villages where time stands still and mind-boggling environmental devastation left by the oil industry — you’ll find both in exotic, welcoming Azerbaijan.

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Europe Featured Weird Travel 

Is this the world’s most bizarre place for a castle?

July 22, 2020July 4, 2021 pdg 3 Comments Corvin Castle, Hunedoara, Hunedoara Steel Works, Hunyadi Castle, Romania, Transylvania

It has everything you’d ever want in a medieval castle. There’s only one problem: It’s in the middle of a giant steel mill.

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Caucasus Photos 

Georgia in pictures

July 5, 2020July 4, 2021 pdg 2 Comments Batumi, Caucasus, Georgia, Gori, Kazbegi, Sakartvelo, Sighnaghi, Tbilisi

Straddling cultural and geographic boundaries between Europe and Asia, Georgia is one of the most fascinating — and scenically diverse — countries on Earth.

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Europe Photos 

Former Yugoslavia in pictures

May 15, 2020September 25, 2021 pdg 0 Comments Baščaršija, Baška, Bosnia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Budva, Croatia, Dubrovnik, Durmitor, Hvar, Julian Alps, Kake Bohinj, Korčula, Kosovo, Lake Ohrid, Ljubljana, Macedonia, Montenegro, Mostar, Peja, Prizren, Rab, Sarajevo, Slovenia, Trogir, Yugoslavia

Images of the dizzyingly diverse former Yugoslav republics of Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, Kosovo and Macedonia.

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Pacific Photos 

Tonga in pictures

May 2, 2020July 11, 2021 pdg 0 Comments Ha'apai Islands, Neiafu, Nuku’alofa, Tonga, Tongatapu, Vava'u Islands

Unspoiled beaches, decrepit ferries, spontaneous schoolkids and a slow-paced way of life in one of the world’s last absolute monarchies.

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Europe 

Cares Gorge: Is this Spain’s best one-day walk?

May 2, 2020April 26, 2021 pdg 0 Comments Bulnes, Cares Gorge, Cares Trail, Garganta del Cares, hiking, Picos de Europa, Poncebos, Ruta del Cares, Spain, walking

The Cares Trail clings to the side of a 1.5km-deep gorge in the Picos de Europa mountains of northern Spain.

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Europe Photos 

Spain and Portugal in pictures

April 25, 2020July 22, 2021 pdg 0 Comments Bilbao, Picos de Europa, Porto, Portugal, Santiago de Compostella, Spain

A wonder of modern architecture, a spectacular mountain range, one of Europe’s deepest canyons, and the charming city that gave port wine – and a country – its name.

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Middle East Photos 

Iran in pictures

April 18, 2020July 22, 2021 pdg 0 Comments Chakchak, Esfahan, Iran, Kandovan, Kerman, Persepolis, Qazvin, Qom, Shiraz, Yazd, Zoroastrianism

Former US President George W Bush called it part of “the Axis of Evil”. I call it one of the most fascinating and welcoming places I’ve been.

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Middle East Photos 

Turkey in pictures

April 12, 2020July 11, 2021 pdg 0 Comments Ani, Diyarbakir, Dogubayazit, Erzurum, Hasankeyf, Istanbul, Kars, Mt Ararat, Turkey, Yusufeli

A snow-bound palace, a ruined city, welcoming locals, a shipwreck and a fabled mountain — those are just a few of the things I photographed in Turkey in 2004.

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Middle East Photos 

Remembering Syria: Photos before and after the war

April 11, 2020July 4, 2021 pdg 0 Comments Aleppo, Aramaic, Arwad Island, Damascus, Deir az-Zor, Hama, Krak des Chevalliers, Maaloula, Palmyra, Syria

In 1995 I spent three unforgettable weeks in Syria. Now, after almost 10 years of civil war, many of the places I visited are no more.

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New Zealand 

Takahē and naked trampers on the Heaphy Track

April 4, 2020May 29, 2022 pdg 0 Comments Gouland Downs, Heaphy Track, hiking, Kahurangi National Park, Karamea, takahe, tramping

The author encounters takahē, kleptomaniac weka and naked trampers on New Zealand’s longest Great Walk.

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Pacific 

The Pacific’s forgotten slave trade

April 1, 2020July 4, 2021 pdg 0 Comments Australia, blackbirding, Port Vila, slave trade, slavery, Tanna, Vanuatu

It’s Australia’s shameful secret: A human trade in which tens of thousands of Pacific Islanders were kidnapped as labour for Queensland’s sugar plantations. Their descendants’ calls for an apology have so far fallen on deaf ears.

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Photos 

Best photos of 2019

January 3, 2020April 26, 2020 pdg 0 Comments Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand, Northland, Paihia, photography, Russell, Sir Hekenukumai Puhipi, Tuia 250, Waitangi

For once picking my favourite photo of the year was easy.

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Featured New Zealand 

The Te Araroa Project

November 13, 2019December 14, 2021 pdg 2 Comments hiking, Kerikeri, Mangamuka, Ninety Mile Beach, Omahuta Forest, Puketi Forest, Raetea Forest, Te Araroa

What drives more than 1000 people a year to walk the length of New Zealand? I decided to find out.

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Europe 

The Girl Fair: Matchmaking centuries before Tinder

October 7, 2019April 5, 2023 pdg 0 Comments Apuseni Mountains, Avram Iancu, Girl Fair, Maiden Fair, Mount Găina, Romania, Târgul de Fete, Tinder

Long before dating apps Romanian villagers would bring their daughters to a remote mountaintop in the hope of finding love.

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About Ramblings

Kia ora and welcome to Ramblings, a fairly random collection of travel stories, photos and reportage from New Zealand and around the world by Peter de Graaf. I’m a reporter and occasional travel writer based in Kerikeri, a small town in New Zealand’s Far North. Read more...

LATEST

How to ride New Zealand’s Timber Trail without blowing your budget — or busting a gut
New Zealand 

How to ride New Zealand’s Timber Trail without blowing your budget — or busting a gut

January 15, 2023January 20, 2023 pdg 0

Ancient podocarp forest, soaring suspension bridges and oodles of history make the Timber Trail one of New Zealand’s best cycling experiences.

‘We can hear ourselves think again’: Stillness descends on Mangamuka as highway closes for the second time in two years
New Zealand 

‘We can hear ourselves think again’: Stillness descends on Mangamuka as highway closes for the second time in two years

December 1, 2022January 18, 2023 pdg 0
“We were starving”: How my aunties saved their family from famine
Europe Featured 

“We were starving”: How my aunties saved their family from famine

August 6, 2022August 15, 2022 pdg 0
Jordan in pictures
Middle East Photos Top stories 

Jordan in pictures

July 1, 2022August 6, 2022 pdg 0

WEIRD TRAVEL

The Bone Church of Kutná Hora: Final resting place of 40,000 people or macabre tourist attraction?
Europe Weird Travel 

The Bone Church of Kutná Hora: Final resting place of 40,000 people or macabre tourist attraction?

November 18, 2021November 19, 2021 pdg 0

The monks of Sedlec Abbey, in what is now the Czech Republic, turned a problem into a morbid masterpiece.

Is this the world’s most bizarre place for a castle?
Europe Featured Weird Travel 

Is this the world’s most bizarre place for a castle?

July 22, 2020July 4, 2021 pdg 3
The Merry Cemetery: Where folk art conquers grief
Europe Top stories Weird Travel 

The Merry Cemetery: Where folk art conquers grief

August 24, 2019December 28, 2020 pdg 0
Is this the world’s strangest parade?
Europe Photos Weird Travel 

Is this the world’s strangest parade?

August 11, 2019September 20, 2020 pdg 0

PHOTOS

Jordan in pictures
Middle East Photos Top stories 

Jordan in pictures

July 1, 2022August 6, 2022 pdg 0

Proud desert dwellers, extraordinary hospitality, and the ancient, rock-hewn city of Petra: Just three of the reasons you need to visit Jordan.

Ukraine revisited: Invasion rekindles memories of long-ago trip
Europe Photos 

Ukraine revisited: Invasion rekindles memories of long-ago trip

March 20, 2022March 20, 2022 pdg 0
Egypt in pictures
Africa Photos 

Egypt in pictures

November 12, 2021November 12, 2021 pdg 0
Cambodia in pictures
Asia Photos 

Cambodia in pictures

October 4, 2021October 4, 2021 pdg 0
Albania in pictures
Europe Photos 

Albania in pictures

September 13, 2021August 6, 2022 pdg 0
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