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PETRINA DARRAH

New Zealand Travel Guide

Road Trips & Itineraries

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PETRINA DARRAH

New Zealand Travel Guide

Road Trips & Itineraries

FREE ITINERARY DOWNLOAD

New Zealand Travel Guide

Road Trips & Itineraries

FREE ITINERARY DOWNLOAD

NEW ZEALAND TRAVEL BLOG

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Where to go in New Zealand on your first visit

Petrina Darrah 7/23/25 Petrina Darrah 7/23/25

Where to go in New Zealand on your first visit

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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

I spent a night completely alone at this little hut at the end of a path through the mossy forest.

So much moss! A beautiful, enchanted, eerie forest with all that moss, and the wind rattling the tree branches together, and the cold drawing a fog d

For the past few years I’ve been escaping New Zealand in winter. I’m mostly solar powered, and without the warmth and light of the sun, everything feels so much smaller.

But, this year I was here. I got my first set of micro spikes, and

At first I thought it was a family in puffer jackets, four squat figures shuffling along the beach.

The sun wasn’t up yet, and I thought I would be the first one on the beach - the rest of the campground was calm and still, no one around as I

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PETRINA DARRAH

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

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