During our first trip down to ‘The Heart of North Island’, Taupo wasn’t even on our radar, to be honest. We intended to spend a night there and drive to Whakapapa Skiing Resort the next morning. Avid snow fans, we couldn’t think of a better way to spend the whole weekend, rather than on the sunny beautiful slopes of Mt Ruapehu. Apparently, things don’t always go the way you pictured it. At the bottom of the mount we were greeted by a severe storm, wind, rain and snowfall – pretty much all the natural disasters you can think of. We managed to have some fun anyway, but after pouring tons of water out of all our boots, jackets and helmets and a good half an hour in a hot bath, we decided to play safe and stay in Taupo on Sunday. And God, though I definitely didn’t have enough snow this winter, I never regretted this decision. Taupo is a wonderful town with lots of exciting and unique activities.
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New Zealand is blessed with talented, creative people. And finding someone doing something unique, special and useful is not a challenge here. Given that there is hardly any other country where launching your own business is that easy and quick, it comes as no surprise every second person we meet on a daily basis in New Zealand has his (or her) own business. And though they all are very different – from the raw desserts delivered to your doorstep to the cruelty-free beauty salons — there are two things they all share in common. Anything people do here is beneficial for the community and the environment, and is always actively supported by locals.
Recently Alex and I had a pleasure to meet Amber Campbell, inspiring co-owner of GoodBuzz Kombucha. Of course, we couldn’t resist to ask her for some tips on turning your passion into a nationwide company:)
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White Island is the ONLY active marine volcano in New Zealand. Obviously, a trip to Bay of Plenty is not…
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"What was the most breathtaking place you’ve been to in New Zealand so far?" This question had me and Alex baffled. I mean, we hardly saw 1/10 of all the fascinating NZ landscapes, but struggled to choose the only one already. But I was never afraid of challenges, so today I’m pushing myself to choose the most spectacular beaches in New Zealand, that we were lucky to soak up the magic of.
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That’s so weird – to sit on a balcony of a beautiful apartment, overlooking Auckland harbour, and to write in blog. Seriously, I remember myself constantly updating blog from new places. Yes, the last year wasn’t full of travels for us, but we don’t complain. I mean, doesn’t moving to a new country equals a life-time travel?:) Anyway, I’m typing all these words just to let you know that me and Alex are now having a time of our life at New Zealand Fashion Week. And that’s probably the main reason of my nostalgic mood:) Because this trip brought back so many memories of other Fashion Weeks, new destinations, new hotels, and midnight blog updates (God, save the extra coffee shots!). Auckland is the sixth FW city for us, so we are really curious and excited to compare local fashion week with Moscow, Milan, Riga, Tashkent, Ekaterinburg.
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Among all New Zealand destinations Rotorua is the one we visit most often. It’s close to Tauranga and there are SO MANY things to do and see there that not a single trip is the same. Before spending a whole weekend in Rotorua, we have already visited three volcanic valleys (find the pros and cons of each in this post), so decided to skip familiar places this time. Instead we met some cute animals, explored the woods and soaked in the hot pools. Here is our guide for a perfect weekend in Rotorua.
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Hi everyone! God only knows how much I missed these cosy evenings of writing in blog with one hand (cause the other one is busy holding a huge cup of tea). Since the last update lots has changed. And I’m extremely happy to finally have some time and share the news with you.
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The way people organise their businesses in New Zealand is so inspiring! Everyone tries to keep it as sustainable, cruelty-free and environmentally-friendly as possible. And beauty industry is an obvious leader in this approach. All the local brands I discovered so far are natural, mostly vegan and, of course, are never tested on animals.
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If you follow us on YouTube, you might have already seen how me and Alex had our hair done at the newest place in Tauranga – Epsilon Hair. I can hardly believe it myself, but after almost two hours of relaxing, drinking coffee and doing nothing I managed to be at least a tiny little bit useful and asked Libby, the founder of this beautiful space, for her recommendations on the best hair products. Because you can never have too much hair care!
