Stormy Weather

While the Wellington region is known for its often very windy conditions its less known for thunderstorms. Further, most of the lightening and thunder that does occur seems to be above the Hutt Valley and over in the Wairarapa. I like a good thunderstorm, and perhaps have a naive view that these events are exciting […]

Piwakawaka Hut

It was February 2021 when I booked Piwakawaka Hut for Anzac weekend in 2022, its been very popular since becoming available in late 2020. Created by Taranaki Regional Council as an added attraction to the already impressive Pukeiti Gardens, Piwakawaka Hut is easy to reach accommodation for those wanting an overnight hut experience, and it […]

Kapiti Island – Rangatira Point

After our December visit to Kapiti Island we still had a couple of daytrip vouchers to visit the more southern Rangatira Point. Keryn’s parents were staying and Phil had a significant birthday to celebrate, so we decided to all take the trip before Alayna started school. Leave from work was organised and we drove north to […]

Kapiti Island

Late last year (2020) I entered a Wellington region photo competition and won a prize of an overnight glamping trip to Kapiti Island. We finally took the trip last weekend, though it almost got delayed due to the weather the previous week. The south end of the North Island has had a prodigious amount of […]

Atiwhakatu Hut

After our overnight stay at Raukawa Hut early last year we’d been looking for another hut to visit, so many months ago now we booked a night at Atiwhakatu Hut in the Tararua Forest Park. While we were able to book Raukawa Hut for just our party Atiwhakatu Hut is a bigger hut that sleeps […]

Success and otherwise

Over the past few months I’ve had some success in photo competitions. Once again I entered the Guardians of Pauatahanui Inlet photo competition (previous success in 2013 & 2018) and managed to win the Nature category, and also have a number of other photos placed and highly commended. The photos can be seen below with […]

Back of the Bus

We’re now heading into Autumn but Wellington gave us a reminder of the best of summer with a warm and sunny afternoon on the waterfront. A week ago we’d been scheduled to see a performance called Back of the Bus performed by Java Dance Theatre as part of the What if the City was a […]

Visiting Gibbs Farm

For years now I’ve had a monthly reminder in my calendar to check for availability to visit Gibbs Farm, a sculpture park featuring a large number of mammoth commissioned artworks situated north of Auckland on hilly farmland adjacent to the Kaipara Harbour. Earlier this year I was surprised to find some dates available in November […]

The Urban Hut Club

Five years ago Keryn and I along with a one-year-old Alayna spent some wonderful times exploring Wellington and checking out 7 Miniature Huts dotted around the landscape, put in place by local artists Kemi & Niko. From tiny to large the adventure was as much about following clues to find the huts as much as […]

Overnight at Raukawa Hut

We’ve taken plenty of holidays with Alayna, and done lots of walking, but up to now had never combined staying somewhere new with a tramp in good old New Zealand bush. We’d been talking about a staying a night in an easily accessible hut with friends and finally this became a reality with a walk […]

School holidays trip to Timaru

The school holidays was once a time for us to avoid travelling in New Zealand, but that was back in the days of having a child who wasn’t school aged (or not having a child at all). Now we join the rest of the school-going NZ families in trying to find both things for our […]

Mana Island

Saturday saw us take up an opportunity to visit Mana Island off the coast from Porirua. The island was designated a scientific reserve in 1987 after a long history of colonisation and farming. Introduced pests and large mammals have been removed and in subsequent years over half a million trees have been planted and a […]

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