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PETRINA DARRAH

New Zealand Travel Guide

Road Trips & Itineraries

PETRINA DARRAH

New Zealand Travel Guide

Road Trips & Itineraries

New Zealand Travel Guide

Road Trips & Itineraries

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Where to go in New Zealand on your first visit

Petrina Darrah 5/17/26 Petrina Darrah 5/17/26

Where to go in New Zealand on your first visit

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My favourite parts of New Zealand will almost always be the ones that are the hardest to get to; ones like the very northern tip of the Coromandel Peninsula, where you have to drive for hours on a gravel road that narrows to one way and skirts right

2025, the year I travelled New Zealand from north to south and then south to north (once again). The year I went to Rotorua for a work thing and ended up moving there after a spontaneous date changed everything.

A year of still figuring things out,

An overnight hike to an old railway hut, an incongruous building painted in the palest pastel green. It’s out in big sky country in a lonely corner of the South Island (which looks so much like Montana Jane Campion used these golden hills as a

The Paparoa Track was so many things I did not expect.

I didn’t expect good weather, and we had three days of sunshine, two beautiful sunsets.

I didn’t expect to be so blown away by the feat of the track; purpose built, it only opened

If you like what I do, you can support me by buying me a ‘virtual’ coffee here — this website is truly fuelled by caffeine.

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horses on a beach in new zealand

a ship on doubtful sound in new zealand

a rocky coastline in new zealand

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PETRINA DARRAH

Petrina Darrah is a freelance travel writer specialising in outdoor adventure travel in New Zealand.

© PETRINA DARRAH 2026

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