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Interislander Ferry, New Zealand
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‘North, south, east and west.’ Last week I caught the Interislander Ferry from Wellington to Picton. Although Wellington is in the south of the north island, and Picton is in the north of the south island (stay with me), both towns are on the same latitude. However, when travelling to…
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Doin’ an Aussie, New Zealand
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What is more Kiwi than the Swandri bush shirt bro? They’ve been keeping rural New Zealanders warm and dry for nearly 100 years. At the Puke Ariki (te reo Maori for ‘hill of chiefs’) Museum in New Plymouth there is a little exhibit tracing the history of Swanndri clothing. Clearing…
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Minties
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‘It’s moments like these…’ I’m a bit partial to a look through a local museum. Sure, after a while they all get a bit samey: a butter churn, a clothes wringer, and one of those irons you have to put in the fire before ironing your slacks. Maybe an assortment…
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Mt Taranaki National Park, New Zealand
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‘Round the Mountain I’ve spent the last four days completing the ‘Around the Mountain Circuit’ walk at Mt Taranaki (Mount Egmont) National Park. The Mt Taranaki volcano is impressive to say the least, and dominates the landscape in the inevitably named Taranaki Region. Its last major eruption was over 150…
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‘Regret and remorse. Amends and atonement. That’s life, right?’
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So intones the gravelly voice of the sinister DJ that accompanies us through the 2015 horror road movie ‘Southbound‘ (Soapbox/Willowbrook Regent Films). The film is an interlocking montage of five stories involving travellers on a desolate, arid highway. The DJ voice-overs appear through the film, providing tough love and counsel,…
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Choose Your Own Adventure
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When I was in primary school, me and my mates loved the Choose Your Own Adventure books. At the end of each chapter, you had to make a choice, and your story would head off in one of two different directions. Since my midlife crisis started, I have often found…
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Honour Them With Peace
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Written in brass on the flagstones of the War Memorial in Auckland are the words ‘Honour Them With Peace’. Is there any more fitting way to commemorate those who gave their lives for us?
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The kindness of strangers
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City living can be a lonely experience at the best of times, let alone during the Corona lockdowns. Despite this, an anonymous person still managed to bring some cheer to a grimy apartment block in Auckland.
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Reuse, reuse, reuse (reuse, reuse), New Zealand
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In a throwaway world of single-use packaging, I discovered that re-using resources is still alive and well in rural New Zealand.
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Reducing and reusing in Raglan, New Zealand
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Driving home from a morning surf, I heard an ad on the radio in Raglan for home delivery of milk in glass bottles. Now we Aussies might be prone to poking fun at our Kiwi cousins for being a bit behind the times, but in this case I reckon we…