Mary Jane Walker's Blog: Adventures at Snow Farm Part 1 – Skiing with a broken shoulder! , page 27

Climbing the Cone of Catastrophes

Beautiful but deadly, Mount Taranaki is reasonably easy to get up. The hard part is getting down.

Lands of the Shining Peak: 'When death itself is dead, I shall be alive'

From Whanganui, I arrive in Taranaki, a peninsula formed by Mount Taranaki, a name that's thought to mean 'Shining Peak'. It's a beautiful province but one with a murky history of conflict between M��ori and settlers, including the now-famous pacifist struggle led by Te Whiti and others at Parihaka.

Tales of the Whanganui: Rediscovering the 'Rhine of New Zealand'

The city of Whanganui finds itself at the mouth of the navigable, scenic Whanganui river, which used to be known at one time as the 'Rhine of New Zealand'. It's also an area steeped in history and culture, as well as wild nature. Don't overlook this part of New Zealand!

From Chasms to Coast: A landscape less often travelled

A lot of people take the view that the plains north of Wellington, on the west side of the North Island, are just somewhere to drive through. But anyone who thinks that is missing out on a lot!

Union Jacks and Grumpy Cats: Monumental disagreements in Aotearoa / New Zealand

The battle over monuments is nothing new to Aotearoa / New Zealand: a country stuffed with memorials to the now-vanished British Empire and its heroes. A 79 day occupation of one memorial park took place as far back as 1995. What lessons can we learn from this experience?

Wild, Weird, Windy Wellington: A capital city at 'the head of M��ui���s fish'

New Zealand's capital city of Wellington is a beautiful and cultured place, a hidden gem featured at one time in a book called 'Great Cities of the World'. Yet it's also hard-assaulted by nature, facing south toward Antarctica, buffeted by winds and shaken by earthquakes.

East of the Ranges: Central Hawkes Bay and the Wairarapa

I travel south through the large but seldom-visited area east of the Ruahine and Tararua Ranges, called Central Hawkes Bay and the Wairarapa, with a mention of Cape Kidnappers / Te Kauwae-a-M��ui at the start. As you can see from the featured image, taken at Castlepoint / Rangiwhakaoma, it's the sort of place where you have bracing holidays! But there are lovely little towns with excellent wine trails too, and Featherston is even a Booktown!

From Te Kur�� to Te Mata: What you will see as you leave Gisborne for Hawkes Bay

In this post, I describe a journey from Young Nicks Head (Te Kur��-a-P��oa) to Te Mata Peak, which overlooks Havelock North, and everything in between from M��hia through Wairoa and Napier, Hastings, Havelock North and Flaxmere. Here, too, there's a fascinating history!

From Hobbiton to Rocket Lab: A slow journey around New Zealand's East Cape

This is a long post which will appear as a chapter in my forthcoming A Maverick New Zealand Way: The North Island. I describe my travels all the way from Hobbiton, at Matamata, right around the Tair��whiti / East Cape to the M��hia Peninsula, the site of Rocket Lab's space launches. I had heaps of adventures on the way and learned a lot, especially about M��ori culture. Although, I could have picked a better time as it was midwinter and raining constantly!

Cruising around the Coromandel: By road, in New Zealand

In this post I introduce readers to the Coromandel Peninsula, an amazing, rugged finger of land that juts out into the Pacific Ocean east of Auckland. It's a big peninsula and has a life and a character all of its own quite different to the nearby city, a ferry-ride away.