Outside of Glenorchy (which is outside of Queenstown, which is outside of…well, nothing, really), there is a town called Paradise. Town is stretching it. Queenstown is a town. Glenorchy is a general store and a cluster of buildings. Paradise is … (more...) [3 comments]
Queenstown, New Zealand, adrenaline capital of the world, has a bit of bad rap in the travel blog community. The cool thing to say seems to be “Queenstown is worth a day or two, just to see what it’s all … (more...) [10 comments]
“The boxes were popping off the shelves like popcorn.” This is what a friend of a friend told us about the 2011 earthquake. He was standing in a warehouse when the 6.3 magnitude quake started to tear Christchurch apart. He … (more...) [2 comments]
I’ve always believed that you can measure the strength of a civilization by the strength of its coffee and its wifi signals. Now, New Zealand may be in the dark ages when it comes to wifi, but it redeems itself … (more...) [14 comments]
Basically, this post exists because I get massively, pathetically seasick. You might remember that I have a lot of romantic ideas about boats and taking the Interislander ferry was no exception. When I realized that the boat we would be … (more...) [8 comments]
Hopefully our car won’t crap out on us and cause me to regret not titling this “how NOT to buy a car in New Zealand.” At the moment, however, she is puttering along nicely, albeit not exactly quietly. (more...) [25 comments]
I recently read a travel blog where the blogger professed to never have experienced culture shock. Seriously? — how can you be a travel blogger and avoid culture shock? Maybe I have a very loose definition of the phenomenon but … (more...) [22 comments]
I’ve never been very good with time zones (I’m known to ask “okay, but what time is it REALLY?” ad nauseaum until my travel companions duct tape my mouth shut and shove me in the trunk), so crossing the International … (more...) [30 comments]