Much has been written about the positive juju generated from journaling. Keeping a record of your trips away and jotting down experiences and impressions is a great way to capture the essence of those adventures for future reflection and reference. It also comes in handy when trying to remember that cool spot you stayed at or neat restaurant you ate at, or when simply recommending … Continue reading Journal your trip with Day One.
Scrunched up against one side of an otherwise open public space near our house is a small dense stand of birch trees. There is a dirt trail running beside it that is heavily trafficked by people like me walking their dogs or, jogging, or taking a shortcut across to the local shopping centre. The trees are also just across the main road from our local … Continue reading High School kids build secret room hidden in plain sight.
Location: Oamaru Victorian Precinct NZ. Weather: Cloudy. Temp: 11C Turning into the Main Street of Oamaru reminded me of many small Australian towns. A mental model fractured over on the right-hand side by a series of grand stone Victorian buildings. “Oooh, let’s definitely stop and take a look down there” advised Kelly.” For some reason, I felt this hurry to keep going. Perhaps because the … Continue reading Adventure in Oamaru
Today we drove south out of Queenstown, leaving the snow-slapped mountains on a jaunty rolldown to Catlins Forrest Park and the rugged southern coast. We stopped in the tiny location of Lumsden for a coffee. Not much of note here except for a Route 6 cafe (done up in the style of US route 66) and a self-serve laundromat right on the side of the … Continue reading McLean Falls
After some bitterly cold (but totally worth it) days in the mountains, today we woke to a New Zealand spring stunner. And to cap it all off, this is our free campsite for tonight. Location: Here It is, as the Kiwis say, ’sweet as bro’ (pronounced: sweet is brew). Continue reading Sweet as, bro
For our first dinner out since starting the trip we visited ‘Winnie’s’ a pizza bar in Queenstown that had an eclectic retro-sports bar vibe, and more importantly a large open fireplace. Here I quickly wolfed down a large veggo and a pint of Tomahawk beer, and then another pint. This induced a decidedly frisky and light-on-my-feet countenance. Immediately picking up on my mood through my … Continue reading Our first earthquake
Lake Wanaka and Mount Aspiring National park sit in a glacial valley situated in the Otago region of the South Island of New Zealand. If the South Island were a person, we would be in the appendix. Wanaka is essentially a tourist magnet, but it is a picturesque village that has not quite yet lost its wild charm. We love to come here for some … Continue reading Lake Wanaka
There is something about walking amongst mountains that scrapes you clean. “Mountains seem to answer an increasing imaginative need in the West. More and more people are discovering a desire for them, and a powerful solace in them. At bottom, mountains, like all wildernesses, challenge our complacent conviction – so easy to lapse into – that the world has been made for humans by humans. … Continue reading Mountains
Today was a big day. In one of those…unbounded pouring in of personal epic moments that you keep filing away in your internal forever album until it overloads and you are utterly emotionally maxed-out and physically shagged-out to the core…kind of ways. After nearly postponing the trip due to inclement weather reports we decided to ‘stuff-it lets go anyway’ and drove up to the Aoraki … Continue reading Aoraki / Mt Cook.
