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…
This past Monday at midnight –a timing that recalls Disney’s short nightmare animation of demons emerging from Bald Mountain – the volcano Mt. Tongariro erupted in the middle of the North Island, causing no injuries…
Just one of the many notable hikes that criss-cross Wellington and wander about the bottom of New Zealand's north island is the City to Sea Walkway. The Walkway climbs up and down the hillsides that…