Stewart Island, off the tip of the bottom of South Island New Zealand, has a Sydney Cove. Well more correctly Ulva Island in the Paterson's Inlet area of Stewart Island has a Sydney Cove.I asked our naturalist guide on our bird watching tour how it came to be named, and this is the story she told us.The boat called the Sydney was wrecked at the bay and the occupants struggled ashore to an extremely hostile reception from the Maoris. In fact, so hostile that ...

It doesn't feel like summer here, but the date says it is.We look up at the grey sky and low cloud and wish that today of all days visibility was better as we are on our way to see Mt. Cook, the highest mountain in NZ. Little patches of blue open up briefly as we pass beautiful, still mirror lakes. The traffic is very light and the windy alpine roads take us further and further up into the clouds.Summer weather or not, New Zealand scenery is gorgeous. Mt. Coo...

Christchurch has suffered. It has been an "annus horribilis" of a year.Everyone has their story of what they were doing when both the 4th September 2010 and the 22nd February 2011 major earthquakes struck. The stories are told, not in a vein of "poor me" but the truth simply stated, and almost all of the locals we have talked to, say "But we are so lucky to be alive - that's what matters".  Most locals knew someone well who died in the 2011 quake. In the ...

" Kia Orana! I am your tour guide for your day trip to island of Aitutaki and I have an announcement to make"Hmmmm - this feels ominous.“I am sorry to say the weather on the island today is not good. It is raining heavily and visibility is very poor. It is not going to be a good day to do a tour”Shell-shocked looks mirrored ours from our group of about 15. We had been picked up at 7am from various resorts in Rarotonga, Cook Islands, for a day tour to ...

New Zealanders are so much like Aussies. If it wasn't for a few distinctly different pronunciations of words, we would swear we had found ourselves back in Australia. Six is somewhere between  "Sux" and "sex" and Fish is somewhere between “Fush” and "Fesh". I love listening to the slight differences in language. There is a marked like minded joviality and chattiness about Kiwis that puts us at immediate ease.Auckland is pretty and stylish with s...