Anyone who knows me at all knows that I love wine. Love to read about it, write about it, learn about it, talk about it, and drink it. Before travelling to New Zealand in 2014, all I really knew about New Zealand wines was Marlborough Savs. Fast forward to September of that year. I spent…
Category: south island
new zealand: a hiker’s paradise, part five
Welcome to part five in New Zealand: A Hiker’s Paradise, where I write all about hiking in New Zealand. This week, I want to talk about hiking in New Zealand’s South Island southern half, particularly hikes in Otago (near Dunedin), the Catlins, Southland, Fiordland, and Stewart Island. In part one, I talked about the differences…
big road trip: week five
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 five! ** dates of travel: 4-12 Dec 2016 As I write this (Thursday), the last few days have been horribly rainy. I’m on the West Coast – which is notorious…
new zealand: a year in review
It seems like only yesterday that I landed at Wellington airport, a bright eyed traveller with dreams bigger than Stewart Island, ready for a year in New Zealand. I was picked up by my new flatmate, and his dog, and thus began a new life in a new city, a new country, over halfway around…
big road trip: week four
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…
my top fifteen NZ moments
As my time in New Zealand finally draws to a close (cue sad music here), I wanted to take some time to look back on the last year and share with you some of my favourite moments of the last fourteen months. This country is incredible. I think I have seen almost everything, driven on…
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…
one day in westport, new zealand
There are 26 Westports in the world, but only one in the Southern Hemisphere. This lucky town is a tiny surf spot on the (where else?) West Coast of New Zealand, two hours or so north of Greymouth and almost at the end of the road. I dropped in for two days and stayed for…
my adventures on stewart island
Mid-October, I requested Sunday – Tuesday off and I set my car up for some glamping (because when you have a world map pillowcase, it’s not really camping.) After work on Saturday, I tucked into my car and drove an hour and a half south of Dunedin to Jacks Bay, where I parked my car…
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….