As you might suspect, it takes a while to digest a trip like this. I’ve been home for a couple weeks now, and at times it all seems surreal. Sometimes it feels like it happened a long time ago. Sometimes I wake up and forget I’m actually home. It’s hard…
“You can’t be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline – it helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer.” ~Frank Zappa I wouldn’t say I’m a tremendous fan, but when…
Almost a year ago, just days after I had embarked on this crazy walkabout, a friend of mine sent me one of the more thoughtful emails I’d received in a very long time. And, as it would happen, one that would continue to bounce around in my head for months…
I went to my first NHL game tonight. I’m not much of a hockey fan. As with most Americans, it ranks a pretty distant fourth on my list of major sports behind football, basketball and baseball. It’s amusing, but pretty hard to watch on TV. Given the alternative of college…
I love football. With the exceptions of friends/family, movies and Mountain Dew, football is at the top of the list of things I’ve missed this year. There’s only so much force-feeding of soccer one American can take. And, while rugby is a good alternative, it just isn’t the same. I…
When was the last time you were in shorts and sandals enjoying some BBQ out on the porch? Ok, well how about the last time you did that in December? How about while watching people bowling on the front lawn? Welcome to Christmas in New Zealand. Allow me if you…
If you’ve been following along for any amount of time you’ve probably figured out I am a certified geek. I admit it – I dig sci-fi, comic book stuff and all-things cinema related. I get excited about rumors on upcoming projects, new movie trailers, and all these cool superhero flicks…
To get away from one’s working environment is, in a sense, to get away from one’s self; and this is often the chief advantage of travel and change. ~Charles Horton Cooley New Zealand is a place unlike any other. This little country has absolutely everything. Beaches, mountains, lakes, glaciers, sweeping…
After my two-day stint in Greymouth, the Magic Bus transported me to Franz Josef, a quaint little town in the middle of a mountainous rainforest. The village itself would be unremarkable and, likely, unworthy of a stop save for its proximity to a huge glacier just a few kilometers away…
Once in a while, a setting or a scene remains etched in my mind. In many cases they are the awe-inspiring settings of well-known landmarks. Those are the easy ones. Sometimes, though, less obvious places reveal something you weren’t expecting. And that “something” may not be much at all –…