I stepped onto the train platform, the cool shadows of the Dunedin Railway Station behind me, its ornate interior all Art Deco meets old world architecture. In front of me, the Taieri Gorge Railway sat waiting silently to take me on an exploratory journey. Climbing aboard, I found my seat in the carriage next to…
Category: new zealand
one day in dunedin
Think back to the last travel guide you read. Flipped through. Browsed. What caught your eye? The photos? The bullet points? The endless paragraphs about the obscure torture museum tucked under the subway station in a dodgy part of town that requires the blood of a male virgin to enter? Ugh. My favourite parts about…
south to dunedin, road trip part three
Missed the beginning of my road trip south? I started in Paihia at the beginning of May. Read in order one, two, three, and four for all the dirty details. 27 – 30 May Aussie Chris picked me up from lunch with Tay and after saying goodbye to her, we found our way into Christchurch…
hiking ben lomond
Two days ago, I hiked my first ever mountain. Sure, I’ve hiked some mountains, some hills. But this was a 1400m high mountain. A legit mountain. I was stoked. I started around 10:30 am, from Queenstown, and took the Tiki Trail up with a girl from the hostel. I think she might have originally been…
on 31: a birthday alone
Confession time. I spent my birthday weekend alone. And it was glorious. Most of the time. After telling the guy I was seeing to get out of my house, I took advantage of my four and a half days off to go through to Queenstown, Kinloch, and Wanaka. I had originally planned to go to…
an early bird tour: gallipoli: the scale of our war
I promised a part three of my posts on Te Papa, and here you go. When Bryn heard that I had had a rather “full” tour of the Gallipoli exhibit, he asked me if I wanted to come back to do the early bird tour. The idea behind this is that, because the exhibit is…
five cups of coffee in dunedin
Coffee. Pretty much the only thing that keeps me going during the day… luckily for me, I tend to be attracted to cities where good coffee goes hand in hand with creativity, good beer, and good wine. Cities like Portland, Oregon; Seattle, Washington; Wellington, New Zealand; Glasgow, Scotland; Melbourne, Australia; Boston, Massachusetts. No surprise, then,…
south to dunedin, road trip part two
If you missed part one, check it out here! We arrived on the South Island in a whirlwind of ferry departures and rain, stopping in the town of Picton to pick up groceries. Taylor was using Wiki Camps to find campsites for the night, and after one full spot, we found our Eden (#1) on…
travel essay: hiking the bealey spur track
It was the perfect day for a hike. We awoke in the crisp autumn air, a slight icy condensation on the car windows, to a hazily clear sky and snow peaked mountains all around us. Taylor and I both knew we wanted to hike; what we didn’t know was which track. We had camped the…
flying high with flying kiwi
About two weeks before I left Paihia, I got a surprise text from Taylor: want to go parasailing?! Um, yes.