Category Archives: Culture

NZ Music Festivals You’d Be Crazy to Miss This Spring and Summer

Posted on November 5, 2019 by noel in Culture, New Zealand

Aside from offering exceptional sights and adrenaline-pumping adventures, New Zealand also boasts a vibrant music festival scene, frequented by hundreds of thousands of people each year. With our selection for the upcoming spring and summer, all you need to do is gather your friends, rent a free campervan and get the party started. Hidden Valley (Matakana, December 27) After a wildly successful inaugural event last year, which brought Fisher to the New Zealand soil, Hidden Valley is back to offer...Read More

Travel and Leisure: Bet You Can’t Guess the World’s 5 Best Cities!

Posted on October 2, 2014 by noel in Culture, News, Uncategorized

Out of the 248,720 cities in the world, there are five that have made the Best Cities in the World list on www.travelandleisure.com. If I could do math, I’d be able to tell you what percentage that makes, but I can’t, so just start packing your bags because, well #YOLO. 1st Kyoto, Japan: Did you know that Kyoto was the official capital of Japan from 794 until 1868? Now it’s Japan’s seventh largest city with 1.4 million people and a modern makeover. Luckily for Kyoto, it has a very rich, dramatic...Read More

Road Tripping in The Movies

Posted on July 25, 2014 by noel in Culture, Driving

Whether there’s summer or winter knocking at your door, the open road is calling you. Can you hear it?! If you’re a little deaf, here’s a list of classic road trip movies to inspire you to get into that car and give in to your wanderlust. Road Tripping with Your Girlfriend: Bonnie and Clyde, 1967 Bonnie, you a bad girl. Sure, the sexiest outlaws in history don’t get a happy ending, but they have good fun along the way and they look great doing it. We don’t recommend any crime sprees on your romantic...Read More

Things to do in Melbourne

Posted on by noel in Australia, Culture, Sights & Attractions

The world’s Most Liveable City has quite the reputation to live up to, but Melbourne delivers on all of the expectations placed upon her. Voila a short list of the Things You Must Do or Die in Melbourne. They’re very easy, don’t be scared… First things first, you’ve just driven miles to get here so you probably need a COFFEE. If you don’t like coffee, then just leave now, because Melbourne is basically the Coffee Capital of Australia. It’s a city built on café culture, like her great European...Read More

Destination Australia: Coober Pedy, “The Opal Capital of the World”

Posted on July 24, 2014 by noel in Australia, Culture, Sights & Attractions

Things looking dull in the city? Or maybe you’re looking for somewhere stunning as you visit Australia? The opal city of the world, located in the Australian Outback, is sure to brighten up your life. Coober Pedy’s shining history In the early 1900s a team in search for gold came across something more extraordinary. While wandering in the painted desert looking for water they stumbled upon traces of Opal. Reacting quickly and laying claim to the area, the Stuart Range Opal Field was...Read More

What to do when visiting a Marae in New Zealand

Posted on February 21, 2013 by noel in Culture, New Zealand

When travelling around New Zealand, it is highly likely you will be taken to visit some of the local Marae. These are sacred meeting houses for Maori and are symbols of tribal identity. Considered by Māori as tūrangawaewae – (standing places or places of belonging), they facilitate public discussions and debates, funerals and celebrations and other local gatherings. They are often elaborately carved and designed community spaces equip with a dining hall and cooking area and the marae ātea (sacred...Read More