#rotorua-taupo

#rotorua-taupo

The strongest El Niño signal still looks more likely later in 2026 than at winter's opening, so June behaves more like a bridge month than a fully mature event.

The eruption generated significant heat and ash, USGS said, with some six inches of tephrabits of volcanic material, ranging from glasslike particles to rocks and ashaccumulating on a nearby golf course. Some glassy material, called Pele's hair for its strandlike structure, traveled as far as the city of Hilosome 30 miles away by car, USGS said.

This golden strip of sand, fringed by turquoise waters, is part of the popular Abel Tasman National Park on Tasman Bay (also known as Te Tai-o-Aorere) at the top of the South Island. Awaroa Beach is nothing if not beloved. So much so that in 2016, almost 40,000 Kiwis banded together to buy the beach from a private entity for more than $2 million and donated it to New Zealand's Department of Conservation.

Snowfall in the Southern Hemisphere on March 2 is a rather unusual occurrence - it is still summer, after all. Nevertheless, Tūroa Ski Area on New Zealand's North Island shared some snowy videos this morning after a cold front brought a couple of inches of the fluffy white stuff in the middle of summer.

A focused Sunday-through-Tuesday storm brings the only meaningful snowfall window, with the best accumulation in Canterbury and lighter spillover elsewhere. Guidance supports a regional high-elevation refresh around 20 cm-30 cm at the top end, while most other fields stay in a modest 1 cm-6 cm range. Expect mostly dense to moderate snow quality during the core burst.

Hilo, Hawaii on the Big Island has been a top pick for many spring travelers, according to Kayak. The booking company found that this spring break, flight searches to Hilo are up 60 percent and that airfare is down 26 percent, when compared to last year. An average, roundtrip economy flight over spring break is $503, according to Kayak.

On an empty beach at the bottom of the world, the waves that roll over the sand are midnight blue and lit by the stars and a waxing moon. I'm only vaguely familiar with the constellations that hang above Great Barrier Island, known for centuries to the Māori as Aotea, some 56 nautical miles northeast of Auckland, New Zealand. I'm not all that used to seeing them so clearly,

You can visit here and see the beauty of the island by looking around and going about your day. However, it's deeper than you can see. What's missed is the stories told, so seek out our history and our roots, then you will truly understand.

It was the almighty cracking that they heard first, an unmistakable deep rumble before the mountain gave way, swallowing up caravans and cars as it collapsed at speed on the campsite below. Aerial images show the aftermath of the landslide that struck New Zealand's North Island on Thursday a massive piece of brown earth gouged out of the green slope, flattened roofs and a few trees sticking out an unnatural angles.

Land is one of those things that can disappear even as you see it. It falls away beneath you, becoming merely the ground under your feet, because you're thinking about where you're going, or a place slowly blurring out of focus from the airplane window. Land is a primal word, primordial even, like lava. And it is a loaded word if, say, you're Indigenous or descend from a people whose land was taken from them.

I spent six weeks traveling solo across New Zealand from Auckland down to Queenstown. Despite being a seasoned traveler, I still made mistakes like staying in the wrong city too long. I should've booked fewer excursions and looked up where to sit for better views on my bus routes. Even after traveling the world solo for 10 years, I still make mistakes when visiting new destinations.

"They say that the Azores is made up of eight islands and an amusement park," my guide, Fernando Brazil, joked as he drove his Land Rover past one of the island's many colorful chapels, known as impérios. Brazil explained that Terceira holds more festivals than all the other Azorean isles combined. Most revolve around the impérios, which are dedicated to the Holy Spirit and can last up to 10 days, with concerts, parades, and bullfights.

There may be no better place to enjoy some time in nature than La Fortuna. The charming town, tucked away in the northern jungles of Costa Rica and beneath the marvelous Arenal Volcano, is an experience for the senses. Unsurprisingly, this has made it one of the most visited places in the region. "La Fortuna's spectacular landscapes make it a haven for nature lovers and thrill seekers alike, boasting unique flora and fauna, a variety of lively wildlife, and exciting outdoor adventures,"

Greenland is currently making headlines, much to the chagrin of Greenlanders. U.S. President Donald Trump's ambition to seize this island, an autonomous territory of Denmark, a NATO founding member, has turned global attention to a corner of the planet they probably hadn't considered before, or to Wikipedia or AI tools, to find out who lives on that enormous white patch in a corner of the American continent, and how.

What sets this isolated rock apart from the competition? It's a question of substance and that ghastly overused word, "authenticity." Capri will always be the pretty one - the view from the Via Krupp and the Faraglioni as seen from La Fontalina are starlet gold - and the island of Procida took recent fame as Europe's 2022 culture capital. Still,

"Hey, a rainbow!" I, the lone passenger on a Mount Adams Transportation Service (MATS) bus that just crossed the Columbia into Hood River, exclaim. "Oh, yeah, I get to see those all the time," the driver responds. "Last week I saw two double rainbows." My inner 5-year-old is envious. A few hours later I see my second rainbow of the day-it's not a double arch, but the tally is still pretty cool.