It is time to leave Whangarei and embark on the next stage of our road trip of New Zealand.  Our destination is Rotorua, in the central region of the country close to the Bay of Plenty and known primarily for it’s Geothermal activity. However our Satnav has different ideas.  After successfully navigating us around Auckland it…

New Zealand is always full of surprises.  In Whangarei we had read of the Quarry Gardens and Quarry Arts Centre as places to visit.  These locations are close by, situated in adjacent old quarries, separated by a steep wooded walk. At the Quarry Gardens is a delightful cafe where we went for our morning coffee…

All journeys start with a single step and so it was for us on Sunday when we left our hotel for the short walk to collect our hire car.  However some things are never that simple and due to some obscure administration processes put in place by our  car hire company, it took us over…

That great chronicler of the Lakeland walks, Alfred Wainwright wrote in his Coast to Coast book……and I paraphrase, “this is the route I took, it is there for you or you can make up your own.  Don’t feel obliged to use my route.” Little did he know (well I assume he did not) that there…

There is a massive feeling of deja vu as we are dropped off at our Heathrow hotel by our good friend Tim.  We have been here before.  Just under a year ago we embarked on our first big Australian adventure and here we are again.  Same hotel, same bar but one year on.  This trip…

A recent weekend in Wales ended with us visiting friends who live just over the border close to Chepstow.  It was a lovely, chilly autumnal day so we decided to stroll along the bank on estuary of the River Severn.  The shots below of the estuary were taken close to sunset and with the tide…

Mention Yorkshire in conversation and a number of images come to mind.  There are the  Yorkshire Moors to the North East of the county, the Pennines which run down the west and border neighbouring Lancashire; these give images of a rolling, rugged and occasionally bleak but beautiful landscape.  Contrast this with the city sprawl that crowd…

Last year Wymondham Town organised their first Vintage Day.  We missed it so it was good to hear it was going to be on again this year. On Sunday Lyn and I walked the couple of miles into town to take a look round.  The main part of the day was a display of classic…

In 2012 I was lucky enough to attend an evening of Athletics at the Olympic Games in London.  There I got to see some star athletes  compete for the glory of becoming Olympic Champion.  A year before, it was announced that London would host the World Athletics Championships in 2017 at the Olympic Stadium. Since…

Air displays, do you love ’em or hate them?  Me?  I fall into the first category.  There is something about the skill of the pilots, the artistry of the patterns they weave in the sky and the engineering required to get something so ungainly (and sometimes ugly) into the air, that is fascinating and awe…