Wish you were here...

EVEN for non-sports enthusiasts, there can be no doubt they know how much the All Blacks rugby brand has done for New Zealand tourism over the years.

Yet, Lions rugby tours apart, it’s not the beauty of the game but the beauty of the land and culture that attracts increasingly huge numbers of tourists to the Land of the Long White Cloud.

I have visited regularly since 1983, always on rugby-related journeys, always in winter, but always with an opportunity to embrace the beauty of the land. That tends to happen when you travel from north to south, east to west, on both the north and south New Zealand islands.