Travel Stories & Inspiration
The Napa of New Zealand
Napier is one of New Zealand’s wine regions, on the east coast and considered the art deco capital, a sleepy little coastal town with the surf washing up on beautiful clean beaches. We loved our little apartment/room overlooking the ocean, both luxurious and nice people.…
Gentle Annie
Gentle Annie has all the right curves in all the right places, hot, beautiful and blond. She was a blast. Annie is something everyone who visits New Zealand should enjoy, a 90 mile track between Taihape and Hastings, one of the coolest roads you will…
Tongariro Crossing
It’s 5am in the morning and we are racing down the highway ready for another unknown adventure. We got a long drive ahead of us, (2 ½ hours) but an even longer hike (9 hours). The Tongariro Crossing is described as the best one day…
Whakarri – White Island
Thirty miles out of Whakatane in the Bay of Plenty there is an active volcano on a small island called Whakarri or White Island. Captain Cook named the island in 1769 when he sailed by the island and saw the white steam rising from the…
The Squeeze
We arrived in Rotorua after a long 6 hour drive. Everybody said this town stinks and they were right, literally. Because of the geothermic volcanic activity the whole town smells like rotten eggs (sulfur), but that’s okay because we came for the volcanic activity so…
7 Psychopaths
We went to the movies last night, NZ style. We walked into the town hall, masquerading as a movie theater and we could tell this was going to be a different experience. One row of people with two plastic chairs each, one for their butts…
The Phantom
We headed down early for a trip on the Phantom, a 50 foot sailboat so we could experience the Bay of Islands from the sea. It was a beautiful day and Rick and Robin were great hosts. There is something special about cutting through the…
Real Girls and Reading Palms
One afternoon as we drove into town we realized that there was something going on to take us back to our southern roots the Real Northern Girl Contest. Every redneck loves a southern girl who can shoot, hunt or skin a coon, but in New…
Russell NZ
Russell is a little sea port was the first settlement of New Zealand by Europeans in the early 1800s. Found on the northern part of the north island in the Bay of Islands, the bay offered a good sea port and the indigenous Maori wanted…
New Friends and Rule Breakers
After a 3 hour drive we arrived in Russell ready to meet our new friend and explore the backside of our home exchange. Chris our host, owns an art gallery in Russell and the moment we walked in she made us feel right at home.…
Hanging With the K-Man
Kel Man is the cutest, smartest, most beautiful child in the world, but then again every grandparent thinks that, don’t they? Ash and Mike live in a cute little house but very different than what I had envisioned. Lou and I both agreed the house…
First Impressions of the Land Down Under
Melbourne is beautiful but incredibly expensive city, tonight we picked up a liter of Coke, $6. When we got to the airport for the flight from Sydney to Melbourne they charged us $70 per bag for checking bags. Breakfast this morning was $60 for three…
Chicadees and the Kel Man
As we sat in the terminal in Sydney waiting for our last flight and the plane pulled up to the jetway I looked over and noticed a couple of cute coeds who were giggling and waving to someone on the tarmac. I was wondering who…
Emptying the Bucket
The Bucket List with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman brought the term “bucket list” back into the lexicon of our society, as two mismatched marauders, one rich and one a blue collar mechanic both diagnosed with terminal cancer become friends and start circling the…
Cambio y Verdad de Personal, Lessons From Peru
Change and personal truth. I have learned a lot during the six months I have spent in Iquitos over the last two years, lessons around personal truth and change. Everybody has a personal truth. Your personal truth are the things only you and the Father above know…
Jungle Rafting
As she left I looked down and noticed she had grabbed my camera and left her own. An honest mistake but I panicked, jumping up I started in the direction she had gone. I didn’t even know her name, we had just sat and talked…
Butterflies Come In All Colors, Shapes and Sizes
As the morning sun peaked through my blinds I wiped the sleep from my eyes and started to plan my day. I realized there was one tourist site I had not seen in all my visits to Iquitos, the Butterfly Farm. Sunday is a slow…