Like the miners in the 1800s, we were lured to St Bathans to discover gold. Well actually, the history surrounding the discovery of gold to be exact. The Creation of St Bathans St Bathans began as a boomtown known as Dunstan Creek way back in 1863. In less than a year, there were 1,000 miners […]
Nevis Valley – A remote backcountry road We Nailed It We had been hanging around Central Otago for a few weeks (see the previous blog on Alexandra), but the Nevis Valley Road was still sitting on our ‘Things to Do” list. An entire day is required for the full loop from Cromwell, through the Nevis […]
Exploring Alexandra Alexandra was only a short drive from our camping spot at Pinders Pond near Roxburgh (46km). See our previous blog. We had our eyes on finishing off the Roxburgh Gorge Cycle Trail by cycling Alexandra to Doctors Point and return. More on this later in the blog. Alexandra has a bit of a […]
Nestled beside the magnificent Mount Benger range, the small sleepy township of Roxburgh sits in the heart of the stunning Teviot Valley in Central Otago. Some of NZ’s largest and best summer fruits can be found here. They have been growing stone fruit here as early as the 1880s, starting off with a couple of […]
It was time to finish what we had started and explore the rest of The Catlins. We’ll call this blog Catlins – Part Three, which takes us to the northern end of the stretch of coastline. If you haven’t yet read my previous blogs, you can check them out here (Catlins – Part One and […]
After pressing pause on our explorations of the Catlins (see our previous blog here), Arrowtown was next on our sights. When it comes to Arrowtown for us, it’s a case of ‘never say never’! The Timing was Right for Arrowtown Now, we admit that we’re not fans of the Queenstown/Arrowtown area. It is not the […]
This is Part Two in our journey to explore The Catlins. We want to do justice to this amazing area of New Zealand. The trick is to ‘rush it slowly’ and peel back the layers. Check out our Catlins – Part One here. We departed Niagara after a two-night stay and headed towards our next […]
The Catlins was an area we were ‘itching’ to get to explore. Okay, COVID 19 made us delay our trip, but we eventually had a window of opportunity to start our voyage of discovery. The Catlins is a spectacular coastal stretch between Invercargill and Balclutha. It has a rugged and untouched beauty that is quite […]
Te Anau to Diamond Lake To get to Diamond Lake, you need to travel through the metropolis of Queenstown and past Glenorchy. Be aware that on google maps, there is another Diamond Lake near Wanaka. It was nearing the end of the July School Holidays and we were edging closer to Queenstown. We didn’t particularly […]
After exploring Milford Road (see the previous blog), we stopped off a Te Anau to decide our next destination. We have been wanting to get to Mavora Lakes for a long time. Located in Southland, Mavora Lakes epitomizes solitude, remoteness yet still easily accessible. It has an impressive landscape of serene lakes, wide-open tussock grasslands […]