It seemed like such a nice birthday present for Nancy: three tins of specialty teas ordered by phone from Teavana at Northpark Mall right near where she was staying to help her parents in their…
Two sunny days in a row. Temperatures climbing to 60 F (about 15 C). Trees budding out. It’s starting to feel like spring down here.Crowds enjoying the vivid tulip display at Botanic Garden In the…
Sand, shore, ocean, forest, farm – you could sum up the Pacific Coast Highway of New Zealand in a few words. Yet, even in a week, we couldn’t get enough of these. The Pacific Coast…
Right now, we are about 10,000 miles apart from each other. And we don’t mean this emotionally or psychologically. Nancy has returned to Dallas to help care for her ailing father, and to situate her…
The evening started so well. After sailing along on general questions and geography, we foundered on sports and, worse, the names of rock-band drummers. Yes, it was Wednesday Quiz Night at The Rose, a pub…
We stood on the edge of the bulky rock bluff looming over the town of Napier and abutting the extensive arc of shoreline within Hawke’s Bay and the Pacific Ocean. Below us, tractors snatched pine…
We drove 300 miles from Wellington to visit the northeast coastal region of New Zealand, where we expected to see many of the natural wonders of that area. What we found was richer by far,…
And so we went down to the sea – or rather, up and down the forested hills, past the nursery, along the golf course, over suburban streets, up and down the coastal headlands to the…
We’ve been noticing a distinctive feature of the Wellington streetscape, the many poster stands at major street corners in town. These are metal cylindrical drums about 7 feet tall and two or three feet wide,…
What better to do on a chilly, showery day than go to the Te Papa museum and experience how Thai couples get married. We had been to Thailand just nine months ago, where we missed…