Little Biddy is a legend; a feisty four-foot female gold prospector whose hard-working, hard-living history is still remembered in the West Coast town of Reefton. Bridget Goodwin, also known as ‘Little Biddy’ or ‘Biddy of the Buller’, was born in Ireland in 1813 but followed the gold trail via Ballarat and Bendigo to the South [...]
At 3000 feet, cruising at 130 knots in calm conditions and with clear blue skies, you are in a different world to the one you left on the ground. You are away from all of the nasty things that happen at ground level, and down below everything is neat, ordered and in its place. The [...]
I can still remember when I clicked on a video link and discovered the Link Pathway of the Marlborough Sounds. What I saw was cyclists whipping along a forest path following the turquoise coastal arms that wrap around headland points and seemingly endless bays. The drone footage of hikers and bikers looked surreal. Their joy! [...]
I’d been to the Edendale Crank Up before – two years ago when I was invited as a passenger on the Ferrari Owner’s Club annual run when the Italian marque was the ‘featured car’. Ferrari, a glittering (slightly misplaced?) jewel in an ocean of beloved old tractors, stationary engines, sheep shearing displays and other old [...]
Up until the mid-1930s, travelling around New Zealand was still an adventure. In fact, as late as 1950 when the Dicks and the Dickettes moved from Auckland to Dunedin, I can remember my father poring over his book of Shell Road Maps of New Zealand to try and plot a safe route for the huge [...]
The Waitaki Valley that links Oamaru to Omarama and the junction of the super-busy inland route SH8, is one of the last great ‘unknown’ drives and destinations in New Zealand. It’s puffed and panted along by a growing number of cyclists on the A2O cycle trail, their eyes fixed firmly on the spot two metres [...]
Nestled in Lyttelton Harbour and surrounded by the Port Hills, Quail Island is certainly a one of a kind location. Canterbury’s largest island, it occupies 81 hectares within the harbour and is a haven for a variety of flora and fauna. Treasured by conservationists and gentle trampers alike, its beauty is of a peaceful, solid, [...]
Fiordland, a paradise packed with dramatic landscapes, and blessed with plentiful huts and hiking tracks including three Great Walks; yet surprisingly barren of cycle trails. Wheels of change are in motion though. As a result of the incredible efforts of the Fiordland Trails Trust, the tread of my tyres can now easily explore the fringes [...]
Earthquakes, whales and crayfish have a long history in this small east coast settlement. With two mountain ranges behind it and a canyon of epic proportions offshore, it is a marine wonderland. I have been to Kaikōura many times since the 1970s, though the majority of my trips have been in the last 20 years; [...]
Recently, New Zealanders marked the second anniversary of the Kaikōura earthquake that hit at two minutes past midnight on November 14, 2016. The 7.8 magnitude quake ripped through the earth from Culverden, 70km south of Kaikōura, to Seddon, 90km north of Kaikōura, and out to sea. GeoNet described the 160km rupture as the earth ‘unzipping’ [...]