All good days in New Zealand start and continue with coffee It’s the end of an era in New Plymouth, celebrated at the Ducks and Drakes Backpackers with barista-style coffee. We are saying goodby

Update: Following an earthquake, Elephant Rock is no longer, well, looking like an elephant. There’s a wild side to the Taranaki coastline – one that involves three sisters. If that doesn&

We are entering big wave territory, so big that they named the highway going along the coast of Taranaki Surf Highway 45. But we aren’t road tripping down the highway for surf… No… T

New Plymouth is really embracing the “four seasons” thing. There’s a saying that New Zealand’s weather is like “four seasons in a day”. While not that extreme, we were hammered with wi

Update: The Govett-Brewster Art Gallery now has an admission fee. The grand finale to our art crawl of New Plymouth ends with the unmissable Govett-Brewster Art Gallery. By unmissable, we mean that y

How did we underestimate this city? When you see New Plymouth on the map, you can only assume it’s a farming community that happens to be near an effing huge volcano. We did not expect to find a

The more we stay in New Plymouth the more surprises we’re encountering. It’s got the mountain. It’s got the sea, the surf and the islands. It’s got the music and the art (which

We’ve seen New Plymouth by coast, now it’s time to see it by sea. Peter from Canoe & Kayak Taranaki is going to take us out on the water today to the Sugar Loaf Islands! The drive to C

After days spent along the Forgotten World Highway surrounded by mountainous terrain, we’re now in New Plymouth, a coastal city in the Taranaki region with the ever unmissable view of the volcan

We have left New Zealand. That’s right, we are now within the territory of the Republic of Whangamomona! Last night we arrived at the home of the republic, the Whangamomona Hotel and stayed the

If you have ever wondered what a Kiwi family living in the part of New Zealand known as the “Forgotten World” gets up to on a Sunday, then you, my friend, are about to find out. All five kids of the

Here, there and nowhere: that’s the road trip plan for today. More specifically, we start our journey on the Forgotten World Highway. However, before we set off from Taumarunui, the start of the

If we felt like we were going fast yesterday using our own peddle-power on the RailBikes, today’s jet boating mission along the Whanganui River is going to blow our freakin’ minds! But, li

Notice: No goats, cows or sheep were harmed during the making of this blog post. The Forgotten World: there’s something extremely enticing about that name that begs for this part of New Zealand

Waikato, we’ve had our extreme ups, like caving in Waitomo, surfing and canyoning in Raglan, and sipping glorious tea at Zealong, and a few downs, like getting the bad news that we’ve been