Country roads - take me home!

1 September 2020

By John Hawkesby

If it wasn’t for the TV show It’s in the Bag, I may never have traversed the country and visited every small town in New Zealand.

To my chagrin at age 38 as a born and bred Aucklander I had been to Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin... and apart from some teenage surfing at Mount Maunganui, that was about it.

When the legendary New Zealand broadcaster and gifted performer Selwyn Toogood passed the It’s In The Bag television show baton to me, he said two things. ONE. “this has been my baby, don’t mess it up, relax and enjoy it”. TWO. “You’ll get to see the best of the country and meet the real loveliest New Zealanders”.

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The North Island

31 August 2020

Sun streamed through the coach windows as we reached the summit on the Remutaka Hill Road and as we wound down the side of this southern most range of the North Island into Wellington there was no hesitation in singing from the song sheets. Our sheer joy found the high notes of the familiar tunes of old favourites and it did not matter if we were off key.  

After all we were friends now with an adventure etched into our memories and treasured forever. It had been two magical weeks together experiencing the skilful itinerary created by Susan Williamson and John Percy of New Zealand Luxury Travel who are renowned for designing personalised tours for discerning travellers to Italy.   

We had all thought that this year would bring the opportunity for us to travel out of New Zealand again as we usually did.

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