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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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New Zealand

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 Comments cycling, King Country, mountain biking, Ngā Haerenga, Ōngarue, Pureora Forest, Timber Trail

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

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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 Comments Far North, Hokianga, Kaitaia, Mangamuka, Mangamuka Gorge, Northland, Tautoko FM, Te Araroa

Two years ago a massive slip wiped out a highway and turned Mangamuka into a ghost town. Now it’s happened again.

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New Zealand 

Auckland’s island escape: Great Barrier’s Aotea Track

June 5, 2022June 5, 2022 pdg 0 Comments Aotea Track, Auckland, Claris, Great Barrier Island, Hauraki Gulf, hiking, Hirakimata, kākā, Mt Hobson, Tryphena, walking, werewere-kōkako

The island boasts spectacular beaches, hot springs, raucous birdlife and lush forest — and it’s just half an hour from Auckland by plane.

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New Zealand 

Fiordland’s Hollyford Valley: A walk back in time

April 6, 2022April 7, 2022 pdg 0 Comments Fiordland, hiking, Hollyford, Martins Bay, Milford Sound, Queenstown, Te Anau

Where experiencing one of New Zealand’s wildest places doesn’t mean you have to go without fine food and lodgings.

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Europe New Zealand 

Portmeirion of the south: How the most remarkable village in Wales was almost built in New Zealand

October 29, 2021October 29, 2021 pdg 2 Comments Auckland, Coromandel, Hauraki Gulf, Nant Gwynant, Pakatoa, Paku, Pen-y-Gwryd Hotel, Portmeirion, Snowdonia National Park, Wales

Village’s creator had a “serious flirtation” with an island in Auckland’s Hauraki Gulf before choosing a bay near his home in Wales instead.

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Europe New Zealand 

Being Dutch: What my heritage means to me

October 9, 2021January 3, 2022 pdg 3 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?

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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.

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New Zealand 

Braving New Zealand’s Old Ghost Road

May 22, 2021May 29, 2022 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.

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New Zealand 

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

April 28, 2021January 9, 2022 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.

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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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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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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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New Zealand 

Sir Hekenukumai Puhipi: The bridge builder

June 30, 2019May 29, 2022 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.

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New Zealand 

One man’s war: A Hokianga soldier remembers

May 29, 2019May 29, 2022 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.

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New Zealand 

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

May 28, 2019May 29, 2022 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.

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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.

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

Stairway to heaven: Ilchi Lee’s Kerikeri dream

February 13, 2019May 29, 2022 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.

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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.

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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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