New Zealand is hands down the most beautiful country in the world and we’re so lucky to call this place home. That’s why we love local travels and love sharing travel tips and detailed guides to various New Zealand destinations with focus readers.
Mount Ruapehu has been a special place for Liz French since she was a child and she has spent some of the happiest times of her life skiing there.
focus writer Carol Garden is spending this winter in Tonga aboard a yacht. She tells us how her sailing life started and why she loves it.
“Yes, we’re open.” We’re so used to seeing these words everywhere in our daily life that they might sound insignificant. But seeing them on the official Kaikoura website is a really big deal!
Walking the Routeburn Track had been on my to-do list for a long time – ever since doing the Milford Track in the mid 90s – and I was encouraged to find a bunch of others who shared similar bucket-list plans.
You can cycle the Motu Road Trail in a day, all 70 or so kilometres of it, plus the extra 10 along the dunes to Opotiki, but why would you when there are interesting places to stay and explore on the way.
Recently named second best region in the world by travel guide Lonely Planet, after a brief visit, it’s easy to see why Taranaki is so highly rated.
A group of us joined our friend the birthday girl on a warm, late-Summer’s day to walk the Tarawera Trail on Lake Tarawera in Rotorua, followed by a long soak in the warm lake water and a restaurant dinner to complete the celebrations.
In contrast to the more famous, more accessible and busier Milford Sound, Doubtful Sound – deep in the heart of Fiordland National Park – is secluded, tranquil and remote.
The rail trail starts at Clyde and runs, offroad, on flat, gravelled terrain for 152kms to Middlemarch (close to Dunedin) with a maximum gradient of 2%.
In the past I could leave as fast as my fingers could book a plane ticket. These days the story is very different. It still starts with a woman who wants to travel but now I am the mum of a toddler. This is not a negative but it changes how you travel.
