Skiers and snowboarders are clapping their gloved hands and kicking up their snow boots – kei te heke te hukapapa (it is snowing) and the New Zealand ski season is underway.
Whale watching is a year round pastime in New Zealand but come winter, the popular activity takes on a more serious role, and this year a busy migration period is providing valuable data as well as entertainment.
The ‘Robertson Promised Gift’ – a private art collection owned by billionaire New Zealand luxury lodge owners, the Robertson family – is to go on show for the first time at the newly refurbished Auckland Art Gallery.
A Tiffany diamond bracelet – found wrapped in a sock – and a shoe collection are among precious items returned to grateful overseas owners after being recovered from earthquake-hit Christchurch, New Zealand hotels.
New Zealand’s luxury tourism sector has received another vote of approval from international travellers with two exclusive properties awarded top world rankings.
First there were celebrity dolphins and an accident-prone kiwi. Next a cave-dweller hermit sheep, a rather forward flightless parrot and a sand-eating penguin – and now New Zealand has another animal celebrity.
A wintry blast has dumped a deep snow blanket across New Zealand’s mountains over the past week, leaving ski fields in the north and south in superb shape for the winter season.
Sirocco, the rare New Zealand kākāpo parrot whose frisky behaviour with a BBC television crew propelled him to global stardom, will make some cameo appearances during Rugby World Cup.