As the year came to an end, I thought about doing a ‘Highlights of 2014’ post. I even made a list. But while I have had an incredible year of travel, I also realized that I’ve been too busy/lazy/disorganized/unmotivated and I haven’t actually written blog posts about many of those highlights, and to try to…
I’ll bet you’ve heard of being addicted to alcohol, drugs, gambling, sex, and even shopping, but did you know that it’s possible to have a penguin addiction? So now you’re laughing. Why do you doubt me? I know what I’m talking about, and a penguin addiction is a serious problem! Here are six signs…
I believe in restoration. I think preserving historical buildings that helped shape a place is important, for us now and for future generations to be able to learn from, to find out where they came from and how these places came to be. Christchurch Cathedral is one of these buildings. Built between 1864 and…
The floor creaked and groaned as I tiptoed through the old abandoned house in Waiuta. Wallpaper was peeling off the walls in huge chunks, every surface was covered in thick dust and it was clear that the house had been empty for quite some time, but I still felt the presence of its former occupants,…
Not many people stop in Reefton. At first glance it’s just a blip on the highway, a place you pass through on your way to or from the West Coast, a one-street town with not much going on. The highway goes right through Reefton. It doesn’t look like much! Except that’s not true.…
My bag was stolen in Oamaru. A street in the Victorian area of Oamaru. Not recently; this happened back in 2002, when I came to New Zealand for three months before I went to Australia for a year’s working holiday. When I tell people my bag got stolen in New Zealand usually…
I’m sick. I mean, not seriously sick, but I’ve had a cold for more than a week and I’m still a coughing, spluttering, phglemy mess of a person. And I’m somewhat miserable, because I’m in Wanaka and it’s beautiful and I thought I’d be out hiking and taking advantage of the multitude of activities available…
I look to my right, centre, left. Mud domes, hundreds, maybe thousands of them, stretching off just about as far as I can see into the desert haze. This is the incredible Zawiyyet Al Mayyiteen, the City of the Dead, a massive cemetery just outside El Minya, Egypt.
It seems like just last week that I arrived on the Banks Peninsula, stunned by the natural beauty of this place and completely overwhelmed by all the things to do! But alas, it has been more than six weeks now, and sadly, the time has come for my departure. I’ve gotten to know the fantastic…
I have a friend who hates giant pandas. And I don’t mean she just kinda dislikes them; no, she actively HATES them. But how could anyone hate this gorgeous face? It’s something to do with pandas being an evolutionary dead end, useless creatures that can only subsist on an extremely limited…