New Zealand Travel Blog

Deep in the South Seas, the most southerly of the Cook Islands has the distinction of being the oldest island in the Pacific. Analysis of its geology shows it dates from 18 million years ago Steeped with legends and myths, its age, structure and ancient artifacts have for decades meant this unique tropical island has become a Mecca for archaeologists and anthropologists... Mangaia’s remarkable natural beauty and serenity are only part of its fascination…

This week two US students trapped in New Zealand's South Island wilderness by a snowstorm, trekked back out to safety after surviving their nine-day ordeal by rationing their meager supplies to a biscuit and jelly per day. "I believe when you go into the bush you take your life into your own hands and need to be prepared to handle whatever conditions occur,"  said 21 year old  Alec Brown . "We could have been more prepared, but in the end we were prepared enough to walk ourselves out." We disagree.

Last week we took our 2 and 4-year-old girls to see the Tamaki Māori Village Experience in Rotorua.

The experience from our perspective was a good one. Once home, like a good little tourist, I logged onto Trip Advisor to air my thoughts and contribute to the so called "reviews you can trust" I came across a review that at first glance looked deliberately malicious (a false review) but on further inspection it became apparent that the reviewer had little or no understanding of contemporary Maori or held a totally unrealistic expectation to what he was letting himself in for.

I was going to start this post with something silly, along the lines “Is that a banana in your pocket…..” and show an image of chimp with the offending item, but thought better of it:  stave off the hilarity this post is about biosecurity and how seriously we take it. This post may just save you a lot of time and a wad of cash.

Sometimes you just get lucky and today was one of those days. We were staying at the beautiful Jean-Michel Cousteau Fiji Islands Resort and guess who should pitch up for the dive but the man himself Jean-Michel Cousteau. Considering he only gets to the resort one week per year, our timing couldn’t have been better. One of the best dives I've had in Fiji!

The NASA Discovery crew spent the equivalent of 365 days in space on a range of missions including launching satellites, working on the Hubble Telescope and carrying materials to the international space station in orbit 400km above Earth. The space station travels at 28,000km/h orbiting the planet six times a day - so one can only assume they were quite capable of handling the 100 metre Abseil (rappel) into Waitomo’s Lost World Cave. 

Australian English is also referred to as "Strine". The word derives from saying the word "Australian" through clenched teeth - a local accent that some scholars claim arose from the need to try and keep ones mouth closed when speaking, in order to keep the flies out…….  

True Aussie “Strine” can be quite difficult to understand, especially if you are in rural or outback Australia. To confuse things further, some Australians join several words together as one - like 'waddayareckon' (what do you reckon?) or owyagoin (how are you going?) and so on.

Nelsons Blue Lake at the top of New Zealand's South Island has some of the clearest water in the world, a study has found. The water is considered almost as "optically clear" as distilled water. Niwa aquatic optics specialist Rob Davies-Colley said it was highly significant that the clarity of the water in the lake was close to pure water.

Australia is a very welcoming country to travel to and appeals to a broad range of visitors from families with children to gap year students, and with wide open spaces, beautiful beaches, glorious sunshine, low crime statistics, and a vast and diverse landscape, it is one of the safest countries in the world to visit. But there are some catches, this article will help you be 'Safe and Aware while enjoying your holiday in Australia' Topics Covered: Driving, Snakes, Spiders, Crocodiles, Swimming, Sharks, Mosquitoes and Stingers.