This is part of a series called New Zealand The next day was a long day of driving. Of course, by this time, everyone had gotten to know each other pretty well and, with three women and one man in the van, the conversations would inevitably turn to how men screw over women. In this…
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This is part of a series called New Zealand While the East Coast of the South Island is pretty genteel, the West Coast is wild and wooly. If you want adventure, you’ve come to the right place! And one of the things to see around here is caves. This part of the coast is honeycombed…
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This is part of a series called New Zealand From the very laid back Kaikoura, we made our way to Christchurch, the most English of New Zealand’s cities. Settled in the mid-1800s on the banks of the Avon River, the original plan was to create a model Church of England community. While it was originally…
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This is part of a series called New Zealand As we headed south, we spent a few days in the seaside town of Kaikoura, New Zealand’s marine life center. It is nestled between the Kaikoura Ranges and the ocean. In fact, it is notable for how narrow the coastal plain actually is. One of the…
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This is part of a series called New Zealand Today, we got a very early start, getting on the Interislander Ferry across the Cook Strait and the Marlborough Sound to New Zealand’s South Island. After a spectacular sunrise, we enjoyed a very calm transit of about 3.5 hours enroute to Picton. Some of our group…
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This is part of a series called New Zealand As we headed south towards Wellington, we increasingly left the isolated, natural beauty behind for things more aligned with civilization and culture. Our first stop was outside Waihi at the Martha Mine. As I noted in an earlier post, hard rock mining had largely waned in…
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This is part of a series called New Zealand After spending a quick evening in Auckland, we headed out to the Coromandel Peninsula, one of the most scenic coastlines in New Zealand. The Coromandel has nearly 250 miles of coastline to explore and around 100 offshore islands to admire. For many years, the industry on…
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This is part of a series called New Zealand The plan for our time in Australia was to work half time and travel half time. During the first part of the year, other than the Tasmania trip, Glen had been working more than that ratio. As a consequence, we planned a 3-week trip to New…
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This is part of a series called Tasmania Circumnavigation! Cradle Mountain was our last truly isolated stop on the trip. As we proceeded north and the east, we made a number of short stops as we headed back to Launceston. Our first was at the wind farm complex at Woolnorth — a blustery cape in…
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This is part of a series called Tasmania Circumnavigation! After a short ride, we arrived at Cradle Mountain National Park, which is part of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage area. Cradle Mountain is the most popular location for visitors in Tasmania, despite (or perhaps because of) its isolation. In every direction you look you will…
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