Yes, They Really Do Say “Sweet As”
“Sweet as what?” Boston Globe correspondent Ron Driscoll asks. “No matter. A New Zealander saying ‘Sweet as’ means it’s all good, or very good, or even cool. You have the correct change? ‘Sweet as.’ You’d…
Tag Archives: North Island
Have Car Will Travel the North Island
“Let me be clear: so long as you are in a car, there’s no wrong way to see New Zealand,” Erin Florio writes in a feature on the North Island for Condé Nast Traveler. “Every…
On a Road Trip about the North Island
A journalist for Canada’s Calgary Herald spent several weeks traipsing across New Zealand. In the first of two stories about the country, Will Ferguson details what he found on the North Island. “New Zealand is…
Top 10 North Island Beach Hotels and Campsites
New Zealand’s North Island “is a rewarding destination for beach lovers” with brilliant blue water and gorgeous stretches of white sand” and offers “many brooding vistas where wild seas meet rocky shores,”
18 Instagram Accounts for Everyone Who Loves New Zealand
New Zealand is known worldwide for its natural beauty and stunning beachscapes. Buzzfeed has published a list of 17 Instagram accounts, which “will give you an overwhelming desire to book a one-way…
New Zealand Knoll Ridge Cafe: Best Designed Cafe in the World
New Zealand’s Knoll Ridge Cafe has been named the best designed cafe in the world by London-based design website Design Curial. The New Zealand cafe is perched dramatically on Mt Ruapehu, New Zealand’s largest active…
Sam Smith’s New Zealand Adventure
This is the “best day of my life”, English singer Sam Smith proclaimed on Instagram following his visit to Hobbiton, the real-life movie set of Lord of the Rings located on the North Island…
North Island a Land of Volcanoes and Vineyards
Over the coming six weeks, the world’s greatest cricketers will be zig-zagging across New Zealand. So for the cricket fan the Independent’s David Whitley suggests, that’s a fine excuse to disappear to the other…
Our Islands Formally and Bilingually Named
15 October 2013 – New Zealand has formally adopted names in English and Maori for the North Island and the South Island; the English already in use but which had not been officially designated. In…
New Territory
New Zealand could adopt Maori names for its two main land masses after the New Zealand Geographic Board found that “North Island” and “South Island” were not official names under legislation, despite their common…
Windows to the Soul
New Zealand’s blue-eyed triplefin fish is one of American National Geographic photographer Brian Skerry’s “amazing pictures from beneath the waves” featuring in the Daily Mail. The triplefin fish is commonly found around…
One Fast Growing Underwater Volcano
Scientists have discovered a submarine volcano in New Zealand waters, 1000km northeast of the North Island, that has undergone the fastest episode of collapse and growth ever recorded in a volcano. The Monowai Cone…
Chopper Ride into Cloudless Bliss
“It’s supposed to be ‘Land of the Long White Cloud’”, but when Helen Parker of The Australian visited the North Island’s east coast “there wasn’t a cloud in sight – or people for that…
Gobsmackingly Good Wine
“Martinborough, at the bottom of the North Island, is alter ego: small, intimate, friendly and with gobsmackingly good vino,” Ian Verrender, business columnist, writes in The Age. “Marlborough produces the bulk of New…
Finding Solitude in the North
New Zealand is American musician Moby’s favourite place on the planet to holiday. “My fear is that every person you talk to is going to give that answer, because New Zealand is so beautiful…
Heavy on the Wonders
The South Island may be spectacular, but the North Island’s got its share of amazements too according to International Business Times’ travel writer Mark Johanson. “The North Island is the spot to…
The Promiscuous Hihi
A team of researchers has found that reintroductions of a small New Zealand bird, called the hihi (Notiomystis cincta), onto the tiny islands around the North Island and into reserves on the mainland have…
Volcanic adventure
“The precipitous mist that clung to the peaks of this volcanic island did little to obscure the ominous scene that was quickly emerging in front of our boat,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reporter Elisabeth Ponsot describes…
Best Northern Beaches
The North Island’s top beaches are named by The Sydney Morning Herald’s Bruce Elder, who writes that those suggested are so good that no trip to New Zealand would be complete without visiting them….
Alternate landscapes
From next year, the North and South Islands could be renamed in Maori. A discovery by officials that the existing names had never been adopted in law has increased pressure from Maori nationalists for…
Northern Delights
Vancouver’s North Shore News featured a travel special on NZ’s North Island. In the Bay of Islands, the writer used the Eagles Nest villa complex as a luxurious base for sailing with dolphins, taking bush walks and…
Still the Place to Be
NZ has proven its staying power as a must-see for British tourists by winning both the Dream Destination prize at the 2006 British Travel Awards and the favourite long-haul country category in the annual Guardian…
Sheep Ranch Deluxe
Wairarapa’s Wharekauhau Country Estate is given a rapturous write-up in the IHT. “A temple to order and calm, the Estate is located on the southern tip of the North Island of NZ, where the prevailing winds…
North Island Odyssey
The Telegraph‘s Max Davidson takes a leisurely tour of the North Island’s wine-producing hot spots. The trail begins in “cosmopolitan Wellington,” followed by the Wairarapa, Auckland, and Waiheke Island. Further north, the scenery becomes more and more…
Northern Exposure
Philippine Star travel writer makes a good stab at the North Island, with a two-part article relating his adventures. The first piece covers Auckland and the Waikato, the second, Waitomo, the Coromandel, and Rotorua. Favourite spots include…
Alternative Slopes
Scotsman feature urges snow bunnies further afield than the Alps and Rockies, recommending NZ alongside Iran, Alaska and Chile as a desirable alternative. “The Alps that run spine-like through the South Island are dotted with ski resorts. Mt…
Road-tripping in Style
Condé Nast writer takes a “wholly enchanting” tour of the North Island behind the wheel of a BMW 745Li – dubbed the All Black “in honour of New Zealand’s brutal and beloved national rugby team.” Highlights on…
Walks, Wine & Weka
Financial Times travel writer Nick Haslam heads to Marlborough, where he walks the famed Queen Charlotte Track, meets a weka, sips wine at Furneaux Lodge, and circumnavigates Mabel Island via kayak. The journey ends on a…
Life on the (Geological) Edge
Times of India lists NZ as its readers’ third most popular summer holiday destination. “The ice age carved the exquisite fretwork of Fiordland and the Marlborough Sounds, huge tectonic forces pushed up the Southern Alps and volcanism…
Round one…
“The food is sooooo good — we want to lick our plates. And the breathtaking views – islands, harbours, volcanoes.” Edmonton Journal travel writer is so impressed by his whirlwind North Island tour he’s…
Superior Slopes
Mt Ruapehu makes the top five in pro-boarder Neil McNaab’s list of favourite descents. “While most people head to the South Island and the areas around Queenstown, the snow-clad volcano Mount Ruapehu makes the North Island…
“What a Beauty”
Confessions of a (former) one-eyed Aussie: “Abandon all those negative clichés. NZ has changed To go to a country so deeply etched in the Australian consciousness by cliché and misinformation is to spend most of…
“Pastoral Eden”
Writer Luba Vangelova takes a road trip up the “stunningly beautiful” east coast of the North Island – a journey described as “temporal as well as geographical.” Vangelova muses over the locals who ” the lost days…
Dalton Speaks
“Home, however briefly, is beckoning. We should be through the Cook Strait, which separates the North and South Islands of my home country, New Zealand, in four days and that means we will, as far as I…
Swinging into History
“Ant Gear guaranteed his place in the record books when, at precisely 12am on 1 January, 2000, he teed off at the Manawatu Golf Club in the North Island.” Gear’s wife stood on the fairways with…
First Golf – Definitely
“Armed with a three iron, a luminous golf ball and a light strapped to his head, Ant Gear dashed around the course at North Island Manawatu Golf Club in 114 – eight shots better than his…
Swimsuit Edition 2000
Supermodel Kylie Bax was born and raised on her parent’s horse breeding farm in North Island, New Zealand.
