The Big Blog
NZ - Riding the PC Highway
NapierAfter leaving the Coromandel Peninsula we have had quite some adventures. We took the legendary Pacific Coast Highway which works its way around the eastern shoulder of the North Island, from Opotiki around to Te Araroa and then down to Gisborne and...
28 January 2018
Meet Dudley, the chick magnet
Tom from Napier telling us all about the Manx NortonOn our previous motorcycle adventures we have had the pleasure of riding with “SB” (Steeple Bumpstead) on our first tour of Europe in 2009, and “Howard” on our 2013 tour. Names for our bikes don’t happen...
22 January 2018
NZ - where do all the tractors go?
We managed to escape after the Auckland floods and rain, for a moment It looked like Noah’s Ark might wash ashore as well. The weather delayed us by one day after which we headed east to the Coromandel Peninsula, up the east coast road because the direct west...
15 January 2018
NZ - searching for Dida
I never knew my father’s father, I think he died before I was born. I do remember my grandmother though, visiting her once in the Blind Home in Victoria Park where she lived for the last part of her life. My grandfather (Dida) left the Island of Korčula in...
4 January 2018
NZ - you can bury me in Whanganui!
But why would you want to bury me in Whangaui? I imagine Whanganui is perhaps not on the list for many Kiwi’s as a place to visit, let alone a desirable resting place. It does however have many similarities with our home town of Gawler in South Australia,...
26 December 2017
A reverence for trees - Redgum Road
Although River Redgum trees are known as icons of Australia, their almost ubiquitous distribution and ever presence means that they are not always appreciated. This is especially the case on roadsides where they are all too often hit by erratic car drivers...
26 October 2017
China - then and now
I have just returned from China, my twenty something visit. It is eight years since I was last there and the changes were staggering. The development of infrastructure and the people has been amazing. It made me think about what it was like when i first visited...
25 July 2017
A reverence for trees - Confidants
Why is it that seats are so often put by or under trees? The benefits are more than just shade, trees can also be companions to confide in, their ever present nature means that they have a wealth of experience and can give good advice, and they are great listeners....
31 May 2017
A space to work
A photographer is someone who takes photographs. Everyone’s a photographer, especially in today’s smartphone universe. The number of images available on the net at the touch of an icon will soon be measured in light years instead of illions, or perhaps not...
10 March 2017
Boob Rain
Lat night was the first rain of the little flower caps from the river redgum trees opposite our house. When I got up this morning the footpath was covered in these tiny cups that had synchronously leapt like a million lemmings from the great gum trees above....
24 December 2016