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Adieu Wellington, hello South Island.

Wellington describes itself as the coolest little capital city in the world and it’s not a bad description. Cool must be the most used word here. Our Weta guide used it  in every  sentence. It’s certainly little too. You can walk around the city centre in 10 minutes and it’s no bigger [...]

December 21, 2017 // 0 Comments

A tour to Weta Studios

Today we went to Weta (the weta is an ugly New Zealand insect) to see the film studios of New Zealand’s most famous son and native of Wellington, Sir Peter Jackson. These are to be found in a suburb that is a mix of light industrial and residential. It’s not like the imposing Hollywood [...]

December 20, 2017 // 0 Comments

The Impostor/Javier Cercas

This is a many layered, intriguing “story”. I deliberately use inverted commas as it recounts the life of Enric Marco, who fought with the Republicans and was deported to Flossenburg concentration camp. Except all this was fabricated by Marco who for 50 years was no more than a garage [...]

December 20, 2017 // 0 Comments

A la Colthard/Q Hotel

As soon as we arrived and the dishy young concierge greeted us wearing a bowery cap, braces and dungarees looking like an extra from The Sting I realised we were in a seriously cool hotel. This was reinforced by the bold modern art exhibited in the foyer. Bob spent a while contemplating this [...]

December 19, 2017 // 0 Comments

Wellington and the Te Papa museum.

It is clear immediately after arrival that Wellington is a quite different city from Auckland. Auckland may be the bigger in population and the commercial hub but Wellington is the capital with parliament. More than that, Wellington belies the dull, provincial image of New Zealand. It is cool, edgy [...]

December 19, 2017 // 0 Comments

Ashes lost

Has anything positive emerged from the debacle of 3 lost Tests, lost Ashes and the distinct possibility of another 5-0 whitewash? There has been the input of Dawid Malan, Rocky Stoneman and James Vince. I am no admirer of the selectors but they did well to identify Malan’s Test potential. Here [...]

December 18, 2017 // 0 Comments

Te Mata wines tour

Wine-making has moved along way forward from a French rustic with ruby cheeks sticking his pudgy fingers into a barrel. These days it’s all about computers, hydraulics and geology and a winery resembles a production factory of silver coloured tanks and pipes. There is the odd surprising [...]

December 17, 2017 // 0 Comments

Kiwi Sport

Yesterday the group arrived at Hawke’s Bay and we are billeted in the charming town/village of Havelock of some 13,000 inhabitants near Napier. It was our first taste of provincial New Zealand. The airport terminal was one building and the baggage reclaim a designated area with no carousel but [...]

December 15, 2017 // 0 Comments

A la Colthard/ Orbit restaurant Sky Tower

My readers will know my views on panoramic restaurants namely that the view is a substitute for the cuisine which as often or not is disappointing. So I went with some trepidation to the Orbit restaurant in the Sky Tower, the tallest building in New Zealand and significantly higher than either Big [...]

December 15, 2017 // 0 Comments

Auckland/first impressions.

Looking out of the window of the airplane in its descent to the accompaniment of a screaming tot suffering from ear pain, I had my first view of Auckland which is a harbour City about 2/3rd up on the western coastline of the North Island. It has a population of 1.5 million and is New Zealand’s [...]

December 13, 2017 // 0 Comments

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