Where is Waipiata? That’s pretty much what I asked when I first heard about Waipiata. Little did I know that I actually cycled past it when we rode the Otago Rail Trail about 8 years ago. Leaving our camping spot after spending 3 days exploring St Bathans (see my previous blog), we headed to the […]
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 […]
Thomson Gorge Road – Dunstan Mountains The day after we ‘nailed the Nevis Valley’ (click on the previous blog here), the sun was still shining so we thought we’d conquer the Thomson Gorge Road. We decided to travel the road over the Dunstan Mountains from west to east. This meant we joined Thomson Gorge […]
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 […]
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 […]
The Road to Milford – a well-worn track Yup, many of us have made the journey. The road to Milford Sound is a road journey from Te Anau which is one of the most scenic experiences you can have on four wheels. In fact, I’ve covered off the road to Milford in a previous blog […]