Cycling in Hawke's Bay: The Wineries Ride

Location - Hawke's Bay, New Zealand
Distance -  33 km round trip.
Terrain - Flat, easy, crushed limestone path. Separated cycle path for most of the way, except Oak Avenue (Ormond Rd) and Omahu Rd (shortcut only).
Difficulty - Easy
Highlights - Lunch in the sunshine at one of the wineries.

Cycling in Hawke's Bay: From the National Aquarium of New Zealand to Bay View.

If New Zealand has a leisure cycling nirvana, Hawke's Bay is it. In a region with a warm, sunny, Mediterranean climate, lovely scenery and lots of things to do on those essential rest days, there are over 200 km of easy year-round cycling trails. Hawke's Bay encompassing the towns of Napier, Hastings and Havelock North in the North Island, is the perfect destination if you have never cycled on a holiday before and want to give it a go. None of the trails take more than a few hours and you will never be far from civilisation.

Sea Walls: Murals for Oceans, Napier New Zealand

Have I told you I love street art? Ever since David and I stumbled across the Open Air Museum in Valparaiso, Chile, I have been a street art addict, tracking it down wherever we go. Napier, it turns out, is a street art addict's idea of heaven.

In March 2016, Napier hosted the Sea Walls: Murals for Oceans public art project in New Zealand. In collaboration with the PangeaSeed Foundation, Napier City Council brought 30 national and international artists to the city to transform 29 blank walls into stunning works of art. In keeping with PangeaSeed's mission to educate and inform on oceanic environmental issues, the murals draw on the theme of threats to the health of the world's oceans. In February 2017, when we visited Napier, the murals looked as fresh and bright as though they were painted yesterday.

Cycling in Auckland: Was it worth all the hassle?

If you read my post a few weeks ago titled A Cyclist's Lament: Welcome to New Zealand you will know that our New Zealand trip got off to a rocky start. Why was I not surprised? The last time we flew our bikes to the Land of the Long White Cloud we struggled to get them through quarantine. You can read the saga here - Life in the Slow Lane: Welcome to New Zealand. The time before that, our troubles began at Sydney airport. You can read that story at  - Queenstown and the Flying Bicycles - or why you should never fly with a bike!

From Disaster to Art Deco in Napier, New Zealand: How an earthquake shaped the city.

At 10.47 in the morning on 3 February 1931 disaster struck the city of Napier in Hawke's Bay, New Zealand. For two and a half minutes the ground convulsed; heaving upward, pausing for a moment, then slamming back to earth.  Buildings swayed, collapsed and disintegrated. Gas mains burst, fires began and terrified residents ran out into the streets only to be killed by a deluge of brick and masonry. This was New Zealand's deadliest earthquake. When it was over, 256 people were dead and Napier was all but destroyed.

When the city was rebuilt, Art Deco was all the fashion and the inhabitants set about making their home a showcase of architectural design. Today, Napier boasts one of the finest concentrations of Art Deco style anywhere in the world.

Wai-O-Tapu: Geothermal Wonders in New Zealand

You know an attraction is good when you do it again the first chance you get. Wai-O-Tapu was like that for us. We discovered this geothermal wonderland two years ago on a trip to New Zealand's North Island. On our return this year, Wai-O-Tapu was top of our list of things to see.

Wai-O-Tapu (meaning 'sacred waters' in Maori) is a stunning geothermal attraction with a well-deserved reputation for being the most colourful and diverse in New Zealand. Wai-O-Tapu is part of one of the most extensive geothermal systems in New Zealand;  literally covered with steam vents, boiling pools of mud, multi-coloured mineral laden pools and collapsed craters.

A Cyclist's Lament: Welcome to New Zealand!

Sometimes David and I make things difficult for ourselves. When it comes to great countries to ride a bicycle in, New Zealand is right up there close to the top of the list. The whole country is criss-crossed by rail trails and cycle paths. We have come here to cycle. We are going to start out in Auckland, head north for a few days and then spend a week near Napier in Hawkes Bay.

Auckland is a city of 1.5 million people. You would think it would be a simple thing to organise bike hire for a two week trip in a city that size. Not for us, the easy option. David doesn’t hire bikes. He dislikes the way they are never as comfortable as his own bike and he hates the extortionate cost - often more than renting a car. He much prefers to subject himself, and me, to the enormous hassle and precision planning required to fly our bikes with us across the Tasman Sea from Australia. 

Searching for Kiwi at Kiwi North, Northland, New Zealand

For a country which produced the All Blacks, some of the toughest footballers in the world, it seems incongruous that New Zealand's national symbol, albeit an unofficial one, is a 45 cm (17 inch) high, flightless bird which registers about 15 out of 10 on the timidity scale - but there you have it, some things in the world just can't be explained.

David and I are in Northland, the northern tip of the North Island of New Zealand and today we went searching for kiwi. We didn't go looking in the wild - kiwi are nocturnal, shy and very hard to find - but we did the next best thing, calling in at Kiwi North. Kiwi North has a purpose built Kiwi House where Puna and Kapua, the two resident kiwi, live.  Their environment is as close to nature as possible with a carpet of leaf litter allowing them to forage for insects and other food the same way they would in the wild. It even rains - twice a week. Special lighting turns day into night so visitors can see them at their most active.

War Memorials - to commemorate ANZAC Day.

One of the saddest things about travelling, is that in every town, no matter how small, there seems to be a memorial to those who served and and died in wars. David and I often stand and read the names of long-dead young men, in quiet contemplation of the waste of their lives. Too many of them died too soon to have children. Their memories are left to live on only in the hearts of more distant relatives and strangers.

Today is ANZAC Day: the 100th Aniversary of the landing at Gallipoli in WWI by Australian and New Zealand forces. In memory of the terrible waste of young lives on both sides of the conflict, I have collected together photographs of war memorials around the world. Some of the photos are mine. Some have been sent to me by other bloggers. They are in no particular order.

The Hauraki Rail Trail: Cycling in New Zealand (Part 2)

For Part 1 of 'The Hauraki Rail Trail: Cycling in New Zealand' click - here

Thames Coastal Path  - 6 kms round trip

The neat little coastal town of Thames, gateway to the Coromandel Peninsula,  has a rich history of gold mining boom and bust together with

The Hauraki Rail Trail (Part 1), Cycling in New Zealand

New Zealand has some great rail trails. Cycling them is the main reason we are drawn back here again and again. It is also the only reason we tolerate the hassle and aggravation of flying our bicycles across the Tasman Sea from Sydney.

(For my blog post on our first experience flying bikes to New Zealand click - here).

What is a rail trail: - 

Rail trails are disused railway lines which have been converted into walking, cycling and, sometimes, horse riding tracks.  The rails are removed, new surfaces put down

Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland, New Zealand

"You want to see what!"

David lifts his eyes from the newspaper and peers at me across the breakfast table.

"Mud," I am trying to sound convincing here.

"Mud," he repeats.


"Yes, boiling mud," I can see I have a long way to go. We seem to be in different universes at the moment.

Kelly Tarlton's Sea Life Aquarium, Auckland, New Zealand

Antarctica is at the top of my bucket list. I have a thing about penguins. The trouble is; David hates cruises and I get sea-sick on the Manly Ferry. Much as D indulges my every travel whim (see 'Wishlist' for the danger in this) I have to face it - Antarctica just isn't going to happen.

I've seen lots of Little Blue and Yellow-eyed penguins in the wild. I have been to King Island, in Bass strait and watched in total isolation while Fairy penguins come ashore by their hundreds - but I had never seen a large penguin.

Cue Plan B - Kelly Tarlton's Sea Life Aquarium in Auckland has King penguins - lots of them.   King penguins stand about 90 cm (3 ft) tall.

Riding the rapids with Tongariro River Rafting: Taupo, New Zealand.

We are staying at Lake Taupo, in the North Island of New Zealand.

David doesn't like water and is not a strong swimmer.  Persuading him to join me on a whitewater rafting trip wasn't easy. The fact that he not only did it but loved it is a testament

Life in the slow lane: Welcome to New Zealand!

We are standing in the slow queue at Auckland airport. We inch forward and stop.

Kiwis are lovely people but can't they count? Six customs officers are checking quarantine declaration forms. There are four for the line to our left and two for us!

Queenstown, New Zealand - not just for adrenaline junkies

Queenstown, New Zealand is adrenaline junkie heaven. Parachuting, bungy-jumping, jet-boating, mountain-biking, ballooning, heli-skiing, canyoning, rafting and dozens of other fast-paced thrills are on offer year-round. Fit, athletic, twenty-somethings are drawn here, like fans to a rock concert, from all over the world.

David and I are neither athletic, twenty-something nor especially fit, but Queenstown draws us back year after year. Almost drowned out by its public face as one of the great adventure capitals of the world, this is a place of stunning scenery -  nestled on the edge of Lake Wakatipu and surrounded by the magnificent Remarkables Mountain Range. Best of all we don't have to jump out of aeroplanes, climb mountains or swing from bungy ropes to appreciate it. It is possible to come here and do nothing more energetic than wander down for coffee by the shores of the lake each morning.

The Otago Rail Trail and A Universal Truth.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a rail trail should be cycled in one direction - or the other - only the truly psychotic cycle both.

The Central Otago Rail Trail runs for 150 kilometres from Clyde to Middlemarch in the South Island of New Zealand.  It takes about four days to cycle. Lots of discussion can be found on the internet about whether it is best to ride the trail west to east or east to west. With the highest point roughly in the middle, neither direction has more downhill sections - the disagreement is all about the quality of the views. Whether you begin from Clyde or Middlemarch however the generally accepted plan of attack is to cycle the trail one way. There are a plethora of package tours available which enable you to do this by providing bikes, accommodation, luggage transfer, back-up and return transport.

Would you ignore this sign?

One of my greatest failings as a world traveller is a serious and persistent law-abiding streak.

This is our fourth trip to Queenstown. On each occasion we have driven out to the remote Kinloch Lodge, past Glenorchy at the far end of Lake Wakatipu. This is serious Lord of the Rings Country - empty, isolated and with beautiful scenery. The tarmac turns to gravel just after Glenorchy.  At Kinloch there is a sign and the sign says -

Penguins, dolphins and a petrified forest.

We are on the south coast of the South Island of New Zealand, about three hours drive from Queenstown. This is about as close to Antarctica as NZ gets. Only sparsely populated Stewart Island is closer. Our holiday cabin, one of an isolated group strung out along the beach at Porpoise Bay, just around the headland from Curio Bay, has 180 degree views of the Southern Ocean. We have no internet, mobile phone coverage or television. What we do have is penguins, dolphins, seals, a petrified forest and, much to David’s irritation, sand flies.

Queenstown and the flying bicycles.

Turning up to an airline check-in counter with a couple of bicycles is one of those experiences which seemed like a good idea when we planned it, but really fell apart in the execution - what a hassle!

Maybe it wouldn't have been so bad if we hadn't had far too much luggage to begin with, but David is incapable of travelling light. We once went half way round the world with a kiddies ride-on-tractor, complete with separate trailer section, purchased on a whim from a roadside stall in Holland for our then 3 year old son. He would ride it up to airline check-in counters much to the amusement of other travellers.