New Zealand is the reason that I love to travel. Well, New Zealand and my mum. She had visited in the 1970s, and when she heard that my school was planning a rugby tour there, she took on a second job as a cleaner so she could pay for my ticket.
Above the city of Christchurch, a ten-minute drive into the Port Hills, I was sitting with a coffee in the gardens of the Sign of the Kiwi café a casual spot
Is this place for real? : The travellers who visited the West Coast and never left stuff.co.nz - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from stuff.co.nz Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
GO NZ: Hokitika holiday highlights - what to see, do and where to stay
16 Feb, 2021 05:00 PM
7 minutes to read
Conservative estimates have the Hokitika of the gold rush-crazy 1860s being the proud owner of no less than 100 pubs. Less conservative estimates place the number closer to 200. Either way, in what was a booming population of 25,000 transient souls looking to find fortune in those rich West Coast soils, whether your pub-to-person ratio was 1:250 or 1:125, you were unlikely to have gone thirsty.
All of which can be gleaned from the history lesson that comes free when you stay at the Hokitika Fire Station Apartments, a place with a history that dates back to those gold-digging, beer-swilling days. With all those pubs n people crammed together in hastily-built quarters, fire was an ever-present risk. Indeed, in an ironic divine act, the town s first fire station once burnt to the ground after a lightning strike.
Christmas countdown: The ultimate Christmas gift guide
28 minutes to read
The Ultimate Christmas Gift Guide
It s the most wonderful time of the year and what a year it s been! If ever there were a time to gather together and relish precious moments with those who mean the most to you, it s Christmas 2020.
But finding the right gift can add stress in what should be a joyous time of year.
So, instead of aimlessly strolling the mall, or endlessly scrolling online, we ve done all the hard work for you in our carefully curated New Zealand Herald Ultimate Christmas Gift Guide for 2020.