A month ago, I packed up my life in Dunedin and headed out on one last big road trip across New Zealand. Here is week three! ** dates of travel: 29 Nov – 3 Dec Back in Queenstown, I set about getting ready to get back on the road. This involved laundry, some last-minute wifi…
Category: adventures
big road trip: detour to auckland
A month ago, I packed up my life in Dunedin and headed out on one last big road trip across New Zealand. Here is week three! dates of travel: 17-29 Nov 2016 I arrived in Auckland during rush hour, which sounds as awful as it was, and caught the shuttle to Jack’s apartment. I spent…
travel essay: christchurch, the broken garden city
It was like walking through a post-apocalyptic city. Lots were fenced in, windows were boarded up. Construction cranes took over the empty skyline. The sidewalks were broken, filled in with cheap asphalt between the cracks. The cathedral, a grey stone Gothic Revival church designed by Gilbert Scott, crumbled during the quake and is still surrounded…
big road trip: week two
A month ago, I packed up my life in Dunedin and headed out on one last big road trip across New Zealand. Here is week two! ** dates of travel: 9-14 Nov 2016 From Dunedin, I went south. I had already done the Catlins so I contented myself with some time in Invercarill and Riverton….
big road trip: week one
A month ago, I packed up my life in Dunedin and headed out on one last big road trip across New Zealand. Here is week one! ** dates of travel: 1-8 Nov 2016 It was absolutely pouring down when I drove out of Dunedin for the second to last time. I’m talking streaming down the…
five tips for successful car camping
Car camping is quite common, whether you knew about it or not. It makes it super easy to move from place to place, and you don’t have to worry too much about finding accommodation when you rock up into a town (though you should take into account the season and any possible bank holidays). It’s…
new zealand: a hiker’s paradise, part four
This week in New Zealand: A Hiker’s Paradise, I begin with South Island hikes around Christchurch and the Banks Peninsula, inland toward Wanaka and Queenstown, and across to the West Coast. As stated in the last post, the climate changes quite a bit as you head further south. The landscape becomes more mountainous, the nights…
travel essay: hiking roy’s peak
The afternoon sun is hot on my shoulders as I make my way from my car to the start of the track. Above me, the peak rises almost vertical, the trail obscured by the shrubs and tussocks on the mountainside. There are still people arriving – like me, late to the party – to the…
starting my own business: money
If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you know that I have been thinking, planning, and otherwise procrastinating about starting my business. Well, that time has come and I’m itching to get out into the wild world of travel planning. My goal is to be open for clients by the end of January…
in photos: day one on the coromandel
My brother arrived in Auckland yesterday for just one tiny week – which is broken up by a bachelor party (Tues) and a wedding (Fri) – so we have these random patches of days in which to do stuff. I met him at the airport early and after getting a car and picking up another…