New Zealand

Nothing can beat a good ol’ hike in New Zealand, that’s for sure. Our nature is so diverse and spectacular,…

Tauranga was always an amazing place to live: gorgeous beaches, relaxed lifestyle and a short ride to pretty much any…

There is something extremely romantic about road tripping through the Coromandel Peninsula. Narrow piece of land (40 km at its broadest point!), surrounded by ocean, makes you feel like being lost in the middle of nowhere even if you know for sure where exactly you are going.

Exploring new destinations makes our heart beat faster. But let’s be honest, no matter how beautiful, extraordinary and unusual is what we’re about to see, it’s not only the final destination that makes us happy and free. The road, the anticipation can be equally sweet and uplifting. Be it those precious hours on a plane, when you’re disconnected from the rest of the world and all you can think about is how you’ll land on an unknown territory in a few hours. Or a wonderful road trip with the warm wind in your hair, endless snacks in a car and your favourite music playing so loud you can’t even hear ourself singing.

New Zealand might be green and blossoming all year round, but there’s that unique magic in Spring, when you can literally feel the nature waking up. And fragile, very feminine and delicate beauty of the blossoming cherry trees is definitely a highlight of the season.

Rachelle Duffy (founder of The Little Big Events) is one of those people doing incredible things for our community and our region. Weekend markets, annual festivals and even monthly magazine is what brings Tauranga to life. I first had a pleasure to talk to her about a year ago, while interviewing Rachelle for focus magazine. Though she just gave Birth to her second baby and was certainly extremely busy being a mum of a newborn, she found time for a long and very interesting phone talk. A year later, and we finally meet in person at the opening day of Our Place, new container village in Tauranga CBD, bringing old market favs and some new brands to the Downtown.

New Zealand is a pure visual inspiration. Bloggers across the globe travel to remote destinations to capture nature’s wonders in the most breathtaking ways, while we’re lucky to live in a country with epic views, lush greens, glacier lakes, black sand beaches, volcanoes and colossal mountains. Most often we don’t even have to go further than our own backyard to create content, causing major travel envy on Instagram.

Tauranga lures tourists in with its magnificent beaches; Rotorua boasts extraordinary mud pools, geysers and colourful steamy lakes; Taupo relies on its giant lake as a great source of activities for tourists all year round… It might seem that despite being New Zealand’s fourth largest city, landlocked Hamilton will never be that attractive to visitors. But don’t be fooled by the first impression! It’s proximity to Hobbiton is definitely not the only reason to visit Hamilton.

We only had around an hour to whizz through the yet sleepy, early morning Arrowtown on our way to Tasman glacier, but you know what? It was enough to make us looking forward to another trip! The cutest lil’ town I have ever seen, that has that magical, enchanted feeling, as if you’ve accidentally took the wrong turn on the highway and found yourself in a new Universe, where everything is so familiar, yet a bit different, like in your favourite children’s book of fairy tales.