With the arrival of winter, I decided that it was time to brush up on my crampon skills, and learn how to use the ice axe I carried as something more than a short walking stick with some lethal spikey parts.

For lockdown I turned a blind eye to the opportunity to spring clean the house, learn a new language, brush up on virology, or spend four hours a day on yoga or any other form of pretzel-wrestling. After a few weeks of numbed-out indecision doing a combination of walking the dog and diddly-squats, I settled on specialising in fungiculture.

Shaz goes on a reporting mission for The Oxford Observer and discovers that she isn’t too old to give surfing a go. No awards were won, but a lot of fun was had. Find out if you too should give surfing a go.

Imagine arriving at your accommodation for the night and instantly feeling like you belong. The people are friendly, there are other travellers chatting and sharing their discoveries, and the amenities are just what you need - and to top it all, the location is perfect…

You instantly wish you’d booked more than one night. But your itinerary is locked in and you’re moving on in the morning. Bummer, eh!

If peace, solitude, and pristine natural surroundings far from civilisation and the maddening crowd are what you look for in a holiday then the Rakiura Track on Stewart Island could be for you. Sharon Davis tells us more.

The cheapest and most effective form of advertising for any business is a referral from an existing customer. Sharon Davis highlights five effective ways to increase referrals – and your bottom line.

Getting ready to file year-end tax returns can be an annual recurring nightmare for advisers. These simple tips will help reduce your year-end financial stress and streamline your filing process in 2015 and beyond.

Lake Tekapo is often seen as a scenic photo, coffee, or pit stop, on the way to Mt Cook, Queenstown, or somewhere else bigger and brighter… but it has a lot more to offer. Sharon Davis uncovers some of Tekapo’s Treasures.

Whether you plan to enjoy the 60km circular Kepler Track, one of New Zealand’s stunning Great Walks, over a leisurely three or four days – or in a body-grinding five-plus-hour mountain run as part of the Kepler Challenge – Fiordland’s Kepler Track should be on your bucket list. Sharon Davis tells us more.

Trade Me, one of New Zealand’s leading e-commerce sites, is a maturing business but CEO Jon Macdonald says it still has strong growth potential. SHARON DAVIS finds out more.

Delegat’s Wine has grown from a family-owned business to New Zealand’s second-largest listed wine company by revenue with an internationally recognised brand selling two million cases a year. JIM DELEGAT, Delegat’s CEO and MD, talks to SHARON DAVIS about the Group’s growth and future potential.

Cloud-based accounting software solution provider, Xero, has just been awarded a sizeable R&D grant on top of a recent $4mn investment. ROD DRURY, Xero’s CEO chats to SHARON DAVIS about Xero’s growth and plans.

The revolutionary role of social media. Has Tunisia and the events that followed empowered and emboldened ordinary citizens, now armed with social media solutions, to make a stand for their basic human rights?

The generation and distribution of electricity is vital to the sustainable growth and development in South Africa. Sharon Davis finds out whether Eskom’s plans are sufficient to meet the country’s growing electricity needs and carbon footprint goals.

The importance of water for economic growth in South Africa, a largely semi-arid country, was recognised as early as the 1960s when the government started an extensive dam-building programme on our major rivers to ensure a regular water supply for both agriculture and industry. South Africa’s future growth is going to be constrained as much by water, as the availability of electricity. Sharon Davis tells us more.

The warm waters of the Indian Ocean, sunny sands and mild winters turn the KwaZulu-Natal coastline into a scene of migration between May and July. Many flock to the welcoming waters and hospitable beaches… and we're not just talking people.

Every year a seething silver mass of sardines travel up the east coast of South Africa, moving north.

Arguably Africa's most famous modern-day explorer Holgate set off on his first epic journey with his wife, Gill, and son, Ross, in 1993. The mission before them was to travel from Cape to Cairo, but with an additional element of tackling the route in open inflatable boats on inland waterways with back-up vehicles.

As has become a hallmark of all Holgate's trips, they filled a beaded calabash with water from Cape Point and took it with them across the waterways of Africa facing bandits, wildlife and malaria.

Set in the pulsing heart of the Zulu Kingdom, stretching over 96 000 hectares from Imfolozi in the south up to a hilly Hluhluwe in the north, the Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Game Reserve (slightly more than two hours drive from Durban) is not only the oldest game park in Africa, but one that can be regarded as KwaZulu-Natal's jewel of conservation.