The Maori Carvings on Lake Taupo are one of the area’s most famous attractions, before I even left Miami I knew this was something I wanted to see.
Finding the 30 foot high cliff-side carving was a little more difficult than I had imagined. There were plenty of kayaking tours that would provide a guide all [...]
I love the Parnell Rose Garden at the edge of Dove Myer Robinson Park. It has over 4,500 rose bushes in every color you can imagine. When we stumbled upon this little treasure I was shocked that it was free!
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Next to the rose garden is a gorgeous little cottage that is perfect for a [...]
We stayed at the Ibis Hotel in Ellerslie when we were hunting for a car. This isn’t a typical location for tourist, but ideal if you are car shopping in Auckland. The hotel is next door to the grounds where Auckland holds its monthly car fair and very close to Great South Road, the street [...]
Burger King has launched a campaign in New Zealand with the slogan “The King is Coming”. There are typical Burger King style commercials that I assume appeal to a different demographic than I belong to. Sorry, I’ve just never found BK’s commercials amusing.
Well, I guess the commercials appeal to Paul more than they do me, [...]
Next to the Parnell Rose Garden in the Dove Myer Robinson Park is a small, well-kept garden named after Nancy Steen. This place looks like the perfect set-up for a garden wedding. There is a little alcove with a fountain and a couple archways that would be ideal for the alter. Since I had just [...]
The Mercure in downtown Auckland is a luxurious budget accommodation. For about $50 USD a night I wasn’t expecting much, but I was delightfully surprised by the clean, efficient room.
The room is a little small, but there is a small area by the door to store your luggage and have a little space. A long [...]
I’m not a big fan of large cities. I love traveling, but the highlights of traveling very rarely occur within a major city. Usually the best parts of a trip are the out of the way natural attractions. One thing that I do enjoy about cities are the parks. Every city has some kind of [...]
We stayed at the Mercure Hotel in downtown Auckland. The hotel was nice, but the restaurant on top was amazing. The large square restaurant has floor to ceiling windows on every side, giving you fantastic views of the city.
The dinner at the restaurant can be a little pricey for travelers on a budget. They have [...]
One thing I love about New Zealand is the abundance of huge, free parks in the cities. Seems as though each major city has its own domain, or large park, with a variety of trails and gardens within it. The Auckland Domain not only has large open green spaces, a rugby field, lots of trails [...]
I went to the New Zealand Body Art Festival in February, but since I was busy enjoying New Zealand’s summer I didn’t get around to sorting the pictures until now. The pictures are so amazing I had to share them.
The best time to go to the Festival is during the competition. I had thought that [...]
In my last post I described my favorite flower, the fuchsia, now I want to introduce you to another native New Zealand species I’ve become enchanted with, the fantail bird.
I had been in New Zealand for about a week when I saw this little forest bird on a walk along the Tongoriro River. Paul spotted [...]
I fell in love with the Fuchsia flower on my first day in New Zealand. We were visiting the Parnell Rose Garden when I noticed a sign for another garden across the road, the Nancy Steen Garden. The small, lovely garden has a variety of flowers, but the ones that caught my attention were the [...]
The Kaimanawa Forest is a little known nature park full of surprising sights. I’m amazed this forest is just minutes away from the famous Tongoriro National Park yet very few people have heard of it. The park has amazing walks, multi-day hikes, small waterfalls and fantastic gorges.
We went to see the Pillars of Hercules and [...]
There are a few different walks in the Kaimanawa Forest. I mentioned the Urchin Track and Summit in yesterday’s blog post and there are two other neat sites to see in the park, Tree Trunk Gorge and the Pillars of Hercules.
Tree Trunk Gorge
Heading south on Desert Road the Kaimanawa Forest is on the left and [...]
The Urchin Track and Summit is located in the Kaimanawa Forest and leads to the Waipakihi Valley, where you can continue your hike for a loop around the small mountain range staying at the 4 huts in the area.
When we started the Urchin Track we were just looking for a fun day hike. We had [...]