Author Archives: thecuriouskiwi

Ohope Beach TOP 10 Holiday Park

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Plenty of signs point to ‘Ohope: NZ’s Most Loved Beach’. We spent a week on a powered site at Ohope Beach TOP 10 Holiday Park, a short walk over the dunes to Ohope Beach. While Ohope didn’t take the title of our most loved beach from Waikanae Beach in Gisborne, we did find one of the most family friendly holiday parks we’ve ever stayed in.

Father Christmas and his helper arrived at 11am on Christmas Day with a sack full of presents for all the children under 8. One lovely little girl sang Father Christmas a Christmas carol in … Read the rest

Suite As – Rutland Arms Inn, Whanganui

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I picked up a ‘Made in Wanganui’ flyer from the Rutland Arms Inn and read that helmets used by the New York Fire Department are made in Whanganui, as well as leather seats for Air New Zealand and Jetstar planes. If your cat eats Whiskas chances are it comes from the Mars petfood factory in Whanganui too.

I stayed at Rutland Arms for the night, although it’s at the less unusual end of the unusual accommodation continuum it’s definitely a good option if you’re in the city on business.

I stayed in the spacious Taylor Suite, all the eight suite … Read the rest

Home Sweet House Truck at Wacky Stays

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Wacky is the right word to describe the collection of unusual accommodation and the farm park that make up Wacky Stays in Kaikoura. We spent the night in the 1951 Bedford house truck, there’s also a yurt, colonial wagon, teepee and farm cottage. I’ve always wanted to stay in a house truck (and truth be told drive off into the sunset in one) so it was a bucket list ticking night for me.

The house truck was built in Nelson by a couple who eventually lived in it full time before it was bought by the owners of Wacky Stays … Read the rest

Wingspan Bird of Prey Centre, Rotorua

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2020 Update: Wingspan’s new site at 1334 Paradise Valley Road is under development, check the Wingspan website and Facebook page for up-to-date information about visiting times etc.

You may handle a form of the New Zealand falcon or karearea every day without realizing – it’s the bird on the back of our $20 note. If you want to handle a falcon for real you may get the chance at Wingspan Bird of Prey Centre in Rotorua.

Mike’s hand shot up with the rest of the crowd when there was a chance for Atareta the falcon to perch on the gloved … Read the rest

Dunedin Chinese Garden

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The Dunedin Chinese Garden was built to acknowledge the contribution that Chinese people have made to Dunedin and Otago, many arrived during the Otago Gold Rush in the 1860’s. “Lan Yuan” is the Chinese name for the garden and it was designed and built as a Scholar’s Garden. Opened in 2008, the garden is unusual in that it is an authentic Chinese Garden, one of only a few outside China.

What’s an authentic Chinese Garden? It’s built by Chinese builders and artisans using traditional methods, and all above ground materials come from China. In keeping with that, all of the … Read the rest

Street Art – Dunedin Bus Shelters

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Artist John Noakes (1938-2006) painted murals on 65 bus shelters in Dunedin. The photos below were taken as we drove around Otago Peninsula. The bus shelters got me thinking about how creativity can be applied to necessary and functional structures in our environment. Why do bus shelters need to be so uniform when they can be a canvas for flying pigs?

Mr Noakes had the idea to paint bus shelters when he was on a bus travelling to work, it was raining, and he saw children huddling in the Company Bay shelter. The children looked miserable and he thought their … Read the rest

All the colours of the rainbow at Rainbow Springs

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(Update 2020: This post is a rough guide only, Rainbow Springs now have a few passes to choose from rather than a one off admission fee so different passes give different experiences, there is now no bird show and you can’t return at night to see a kiwi).

Some of the best dressed birds are at Rainbow Springs in Rotorua. There’s the Mandarin duck with its purple chest, layers of orange face feathers and bright red bill.

These smoochy masked lovebirds only have white ringed eyes for each other as they perch side by side in their yellow collars.… Read the rest

Giant flowers & glass forests at Lava Glass

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It was difficult to pick a favourite piece in the Lava Glass sculpture garden in Taupo. I really liked the glass waterfall made with a series of shell platters that trickled water gently down a rock slope to the pond below.

And who wouldn’t want a bouquet of these giant glass flowers in their garden?

Even more unusual are the glass forests in giant paper weights. Some of the trees looked to me like petrified silver beet leaves, and the flowers looked like candy. They’re not ofcourse, leaves and lollies would be decimated with the kind of heat involved in … Read the rest