Tag Archives: New Zealand

Today is the day that terrorism came to New Zealand

I was just thinking the other day how innocent, easy-going and care-free New Zealand feels when you walk around in Wellington, compared to cities in Australia. I was thinking how much safer New Zealand feels, at least for me, compared to Australia. Today is the day that terrorism and its associated paranoia, fear and senseContinue reading “Today is the day that terrorism came to New Zealand”

Every Picture Tells A Story: Tamaki Drive at Night

I have a complicated relationship with Auckland. Over the past five years since we moved here, the city has become a bloated, enormous metropolis which simply cannot sustain its ever-growing population. Essentials like roads, public transport, health care and housing have fallen apart at the seams in Auckland leading us to head south and awayContinue reading “Every Picture Tells A Story: Tamaki Drive at Night”

Pagan Date: Lammas

Lammas, also known by its gaelic name Lughnasadh is a time for remembering gratitude, and how abundance has come into your life. It’s a time for giving thanks to the universe for all that has come to fruition and all that is still to come. 

Food: Autumn’s bounty and feijoa relish

In our front yard we have a burgeoning, blooming mini forest that encroaches on our house. Part of this wildness is a feijoa tree that drops a bounty of hundreds of oval-shaped bright green feijoa fruit onto the forest floor. I then need to scramble to grab all of these treasures before they are subsumedContinue reading “Food: Autumn’s bounty and feijoa relish”

The ultimate guide to collective nouns for New Zealand birds

This post is for all of the New Zealand and global bird-lovers out there. New Zealand has some wonderful and incredibly intelligent birds that also tend to have rambuctious, mischievous and cheeky personalities. Check out this video of a kea being, well… a kea if you don’t believe me… Here are some little known collectiveContinue reading “The ultimate guide to collective nouns for New Zealand birds”

Travel: Magnificent Milford Sound, New Zealand

A few years ago we went to Central Otago on a trip. It really was a magical time away, At that stage we both had highly stressful jobs and we were really needing to get away from everything. Probably one of the best places in the world to blow the cobwebs out of your worldContinue reading “Travel: Magnificent Milford Sound, New Zealand”

Travel: Baby seal on Mahia Beach, New Zealand 

While visiting family on the east coast of New Zealand we came upon a little baby seal or what the Scottish would call a selkie (a water spirit) lurking precariously close to the road. She was laying in a clump of harakeke flax and staring up at us with wide, black shiny eyes. I wasContinue reading “Travel: Baby seal on Mahia Beach, New Zealand “

Travel: Delightful Art Deco Bollards in Napier

Whereas in Australia bollards are being erected everywhere to protect against trucks driving through people on the street, in little old New Zealand, the bollard means something completely different and is used to great decorative affect in the town of Napier in New Zealand. These Art Deco bollards are dotted around all of the streetsContinue reading “Travel: Delightful Art Deco Bollards in Napier”

Travel: A winter afternoon of contemplation in Queenstown

Overlooking the majestic and pure beauty of Lake Wakatipu in Queenstown, the peace and serenity of the place lends itself well to comtemplating life plans, love, the meaning of it all. The dramatic cathedral of the big sky and jutting snow-capped mountains is ever-changing and there’s a reverent silence here like inside of a medievalContinue reading “Travel: A winter afternoon of contemplation in Queenstown”