New Zealand | Ramblings

Being Dutch: What my heritage means to me

October 9, 2021October 15, 2021 pdg 0 Comments Dutch waka, Eindhoven, Koninginnedag, Koningsdag, Leiden, Netherlands, Te Hono ki Aotearoa

What does it mean to be a New Zealander of Dutch descent? And what if the country of my ancestors decides I no longer belong?

New Zealand

Project Island Song: Return of the giants

July 21, 2021July 21, 2021 pdg 0 Comments Bay of Islands, giant wētā, Motuarohia, Moturua, Northland, Paihia, Project Island Song, Russell, Urupukapuka, weta, wētāpunga

An ambitious ecological restoration project aims to return a small corner of New Zealand to the way it was before humans arrived.

New Zealand

Braving New Zealand’s Old Ghost Road

May 22, 2021May 22, 2021 pdg 2 Comments Ghost Lake, hiking, Lyell, Mokihinui River, Old Ghost Road, Seddonville, Westland, Westport

One of New Zealand’s newest dual-use tramping and mountain bike trails, the 85km-long Old Ghost Road is also one of the most spectacular.

New Zealand

Getting high in Northland: A peak-bagger’s guide to the North’s 10 highest mountains

April 28, 2021April 29, 2021 pdg 0 Comments Far North, hiking, Kaipara, Northland, peakbagging, Raetea, Te Raupua, Tutamoe, Whangarei

How to climb Northland’s highest peaks — well, some of them anyway — and where to find them.

New Zealand

Paparoa Track: NZ’s newest Great Walk

April 2, 2021July 11, 2021 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.

New Zealand

Walking the Queen Charlotte Track (the easy way)

March 3, 2021March 4, 2021 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.

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.

New Zealand

Takahē and naked trampers on the Heaphy Track

April 4, 2020March 2, 2021 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.

The Te Araroa Project

November 13, 2019July 4, 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.

New Zealand

Sir Hekenukumai Puhipi: The bridge builder

June 30, 2019September 20, 2020 pdg 0 Comments Haami Piripi, Hector Busby, Hōkūle’a, Jacinda Ardern, Mau Piailug, Nainoa Thompson, Ngahiraka Mai Tawhiti, Ngātokimatawhaorua, Polynesian Voyaging Society, Sir Hek, Sir Hekenukumai Puhipi, Sir James Henare, Te Aurere, Voyage of Rediscovery, waka, waka hourua

Sir Hek Busby spent a lifetime building bridges – over rivers, between peoples, and across the mighty Pacific Ocean.

New Zealand

One man’s war: A Hokianga soldier remembers

May 29, 2019September 20, 2020 pdg 2 Comments Faenza, Hokianga, Italy, Kohukohu, Motukauri, Rawene, World War II

Bill Guest only left North Hokianga once and reckons it was only luck that brought him back alive. The 96-year-old veteran shares some of the horror, and humour, of World War II.

New Zealand

Kiwi couple’s answer to the housing crisis: A tiny house on a trailer

May 28, 2019September 20, 2020 pdg 0 Comments food sovereignty, Hokianga, Northland, tiny house

Rangimārie Mules and Jared Hiakita didn’t want to start their life together shackled to a giant mortgage. Their solution was a tiny house on a trailer.

New Zealand Top stories

Walking New Zealand’s Hokianga Coastal Track

April 20, 2019January 2, 2021 pdg 3 Comments hiking, Hokianga, Hokianga Coastal Track, Kai Iwi Lakes, Maunganui Bluff, Ōmāpere, Waimamaku Coastal Track, walking

Three days of wildly beautiful coastline — and chances are you won’t have to share it with anyone.

A cut-out of Ilchi Lee welcomes visitors on a bushwalk called 'The Way of New Life'

New Zealand

Stairway to heaven

February 13, 2019September 19, 2020 pdg 0 Comments Dahn yoga, Earth Citizens Organisation, Earth Village, Ilchi Lee, Kerikeri

In the bush west of Kerikeri, a small town in northern New Zealand, a Korean spiritual leader says he is building a global headquarters for an organisation of 100 million members.

New Zealand Photos

Waitangi Day in pictures

February 8, 2019February 8, 2019 pdg 3 Comments Bay of Islands, Hekenukumai Puhipi, Jacinda Ardern, Treaty of Waitangi, Waitangi Day, Waitangi Treaty Grounds, waka

A selection of my favourite images from Waitangi Day, the anniversary of the signing of New Zealand’s Treaty of Waitangi, taken since 2010.

New Zealand Photos

Best photos of 2018

January 24, 2019 pdg 0 Comments haka, Jimmy Cliff, Northland, Richie McCaw, Waitangi, whale rescue

From a new Prime Minister’s visit to a tearful whale stranding and a mass haka in the rain, these are a few of my favourite news photos of 2018.

New Zealand

Brother’s bones home at last

September 10, 2018September 19, 2020 pdg 2 Comments Malayan Emergency, NZ Defence Force, SAS, Te Auraki

In 1976 Paul Thomas promised his mother he would bring his brother’s remains home. In 2018 he finally succeeded.

Europe Featured New Zealand

The far-reaching wake of the waka

May 27, 2018September 19, 2020 pdg 0 Comments Leiden, Museum Volkenkunde, Netherlands, Te Hono ki Aotearoa, Te Papa, waka

What makes a group of Dutch students so passionate about Māori culture that they travel halfway around the world each year to take part in Waitangi Day festivities?