Author Archives: vjayne

About vjayne

I'm a writer / photographer usually based on Waiheke Island in New Zealand but currently traveling the country in "snail" - my mobile home and office. Along the way, I'm telling stories about the places I see or people I meet and building up a beautiful library of photos - of New Zealand's coastline and mountains, its walking tracks and wildlife. I'm happy to supply illustrated stories to New Zealand and offshore publications. My work background includes editing business and lifestyle magazines, crafting features on topics ranging from management and marketing to frogs and fashion, creating organisational narratives and promotional literature. Please visit my website for more information. www.writeawaycommunications.co.nz

Whitebait country

Posted on November 28, 2011 by vjayne

The roar of the sea is a quiet constant at Okarito campground. Closer is the scrabbling sound of dinner – trying to escape. On tonight’s menu is whitebait fritters. They couldn’t be fresher. Caught this morning, they are alarmingly alive, … Continue reading →

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Okarito – in many moods

Posted on November 28, 2011 by vjayne

Wild, white-capped seas froth onto the pebbled shore under a menacing sky, hailstones whipped by a strong sou-westerly pelt bare legs as I beat a hasty retreat from beach to campervan. West Coast magic! I’d been looking forward to getting … Continue reading →

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Portal to the past

Posted on June 19, 2011 by vjayne

Tucked in a remote valley accessed only by sheep track, the hand-built stone cottage looks like a portal to the past – to a time when miners crowded the Moke Valley behind Queenstown in search of gold. Mountains rise steeply … Continue reading →

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things that go clunk…

Posted on June 16, 2011 by vjayne

West Coast roads have a lot of ups, downs, sharp bends and long gaps between any human habitation. That’s the attraction But it’s the last place you want to hear ominous clunking noises coming from just underneath the cab of … Continue reading →

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Route 35 – the slow travel movement

Posted on May 31, 2011 by vjayne

If you go around East Cape, you have to stop at least three times, a friend informs me. He’s wrong. My count has far exceeded that and I’ve only reached Tokomaru. Route 35 – the Pacific Coast Highway – is … Continue reading →

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Bonding over a falcon

Posted on May 29, 2011 by vjayne

Visiting Okarito has been on my wish list for a long time. I’m not quite sure why. It’s the environment that informs Keri Hulme’s luminous prose; a place where white herons stride the still lagoon, where waves pound a driftwood-strewn … Continue reading →

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Tomorrow as it used to be

Posted on May 23, 2011 by vjayne

Penguins and penny farthings; seals and “steampunk”. Oamaru is a place where eccentricity and eco-tourism flourish with equal vigour against an architectural backdrop that seems to have emerged unscathed from the 19thcentury. The past is not just preserved but celebrated … Continue reading →

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At Bluff – with the Baltic Bikers

Posted on May 9, 2011 by vjayne

Over one month and 3300 kilometres your legs go up and down a helluva lot of times on a bike. Former maths teacher Bill Kinghorn came up with the actual number one day – somewhere between Cape Reinga and Bluff.  … Continue reading →

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In praise of small things

Posted on May 7, 2011 by vjayne

One of the things I love about digital photography is its ability to provide a pathway into tiny worlds – a bee’s eye view into the sexy beauty of flowers, a rainbow spectrum caught in salty foam, the world captured … Continue reading →

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A vintage retirement

Posted on April 13, 2011 by vjayne

Night may have fallen but the bright glow of a welding torch still arcs cheerfully from the entrance of what looks like a serious man cave. Obscure chunks of machinery are stacked everywhere, odd clatters and bursts of song emerge … Continue reading →

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