You hang at an angle, feet still reassuringly touching the launch pad, suspended 130m above the floor of the canyon carved by the Nevis River in the mountains between Queenstown and Cromwell in New Zealand. The only thing stopping you plunging to a very messy end all those metres below is a harness … [Read more...]

Given the impracticality of overseas travel right now, and therefore the enjoyment of some of the bucket-list road trips – Blue Ridge Parkway or Alaska Highway for instance – I decided to explore one of the backroads at my own backdoor. State Highway 22 in New Zealand runs from just south of … [Read more...]

With international travel severely restricted it may seem the wrong time to launch a book on road trips in Britain. That hasn’t stopped travel writer David Morris releasing his eBook, “Great British Road Trips”. “I figure that the desire to travel is still strong,” he says, “and though they … [Read more...]

If Dunedin, New Zealand, has anything to give the nation it is the heritage of its beautiful buildings. They survived the barbarity of redevelopment because nobody wanted to redevelop Dunedin. As a result we have a treasure trove of Victorian architecture. People visiting the city are often … [Read more...]

What is the best passport in the world?  And the worst? A comparison of the passport “value” of various countries makes interesting reading. It’s easy to assume that a British or American passport would open more immigration doors than any other. Not so, by quite a margin. Best passport … [Read more...]

Just finished a road trip around North Canterbury in the South Island of New Zealand, starting in Christchurch, taking in Hanmer Springs and Kaikoura and finishing back in Christchurch. It’s a popular circuit called the Alpine Triangle. We made it a three-day long weekend jaunt, but I would … [Read more...]

The eagle has landed. Snapped this shot of a Haast Eagle sculpture on the road from Queenstown to Glenorchy at the head of NZ's Lake Wakatipu. Glenorchy-based sculptor Dan Kelly used century-old steel fence standards from a high country station to create this 1.2m high sculpture of the now … [Read more...]

  Take a break from the rigours of the road when you are enjoying your Great British Road Trip. Catch a canal boat. Having nearly fallen into irrecoverable decay, the canals of Britain are enjoying a renaissance, thanks mostly to the indomitable efforts of volunteers who repair, … [Read more...]

Sorry Britain - there's no such thing as spaghetti bolognese . . . not in Italy, as I discovered on a recent visit to Bologna. It is, like chicken tikka masala, entirely an English invention and, according to any Italian cook, not one of the better ones. Nonetheless it is a compulsory item on … [Read more...]