We only spent two nights in Christchurch, just enough to get a small flavor of this charming city. We’re now on the bus heading out of Christchurch, on our way to Dunedin. Christchurch is very walkable, so I walked a lot. I spent a lot of time in the beautiful Botanic Gardens and I visited…
This morning we left Rotorua and flew to Christchurch. Before I forget everything, here’s a rundown of the activities, sights, and experiences of Rotorua.
A pōwhiri is a traditional ceremony of welcome to guests of a Māori iwi. Yesterday I was honored to be welcomed to the marae of the Ngāi Tokowaru along with my fellow travelers. I want to share this experience. But I am bound to get some of the details wrong. I am basing what I…
After four days in Fiji and six days in Australia, I arrived in Auckland late last Wednesday night to start my OAT tour of New Zealand. Here’s where I write about what I’ve done the last three days. If you want to skip to the photos, here they are. But if you want to read,…
I flew from Sydney to Cairns and stayed there for three nights. I scheduled two all-day outings. Here’s the full story. At the moment I’m in Brisbane Airport awaiting my flight to Auckland. (I flew here from Cairns this morning.) As usual, you can skip to the photos if you don’t want to read about my…
I spent three days in Sydney and I just left this morning. I wrote a little of this each day and finished it today in Cairns. Three days was definitely not enough. I will have to come back and spend a lot more time here. But for now, here are the highlights of my short visit.…
I’m in Fiji. Here’s everything about my time here. If you want, you can skip the narrative and jump to the photos.
I am sitting in the One World Lounge, 40 minutes into my ten-hour LAX layover. Since I have no idea how to spend ten hours in this lounge, I thought I would write about it.
I’ve been to a lot of Mexico’s Pueblos Mágicos. As of this writing, I’ve visited 46. Granted, that’s only about one quarter of them. But I have some recommendations for the best of them. If you want to see some of the nicest smaller cities and towns in Mexico, here are my suggestions for the…
I wasn’t sure “Down Under” was the right umbrella term for my next trip. I was thinking “Down Under” might refer specifically to Australia. But according to Wikipedia, The term Down Under is a colloquialism differently construed to refer to Australia and New Zealand, or the Pacific island countries collectively. The term originally referred solely to Australia and gradually expanded in scope. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Down_Under In two weeks…
I’ve spent the last two weeks in Oaxaca. My main purpose in coming here was to study Spanish. I enrolled in the Spanish Immersion School for 5 hours of lessons each day, Monday through Friday. The other reason for visiting Oaxaca was to visit Oaxaca! Famous for great food and for being a delightful city,…
The other night I had dinner at El Destilado. I made the reservation before I got to Oaxaca based on reading several articles recommending it. When I booked, they asked me to specify whether I wanted to order off the menu or go with one of their tasting menus. And with the tasting menu, they…
