We chose our Christchurch apartment because it was relatively close to the train station, but in retrospect, it wasn’t a great location. Walking there felt like walking through the suburbs of Sacramento—flat grid streets lined with low ranch-style houses interspersed with strip malls—not the greatest introduction to the city. We were on the other side…

In order to connect to the second of our slow travel train rides, we booked the ferry to Picton on the South Island, billed as one of the most beautiful ferry rides in the world. A three and a half hour journey, it leaves Wellington harbor and traverses the Cook Strait, one of the wildest…

While this is Tom’s first visit to New Zealand, I have been here a couple of times before, when my family was living in Australia. I still have vivid memories of those trips, so I was really looking forward to coming back to Wellington, which had enchanted me as a teenager. Our approach to New…

When we were planning our RTW trip, Tom and I decided we would try to do ‘slow travel’ whenever and wherever possible, using trains, ferries, buses etc. instead of flying from point to point. We both like train travel, so we booked two long train rides in New Zealand: the Northern Explorer from Auckland to…

We left Dargaville with no regrets and drove straight to Auckland where, with some sadness, we returned our trusty Japanese Toyota Aqua knowing we’d never get such a fuel efficient rental car again in our lifetimes. We arrived in Auckland in the early afternoon because we were scheduled to see the new movie One Life,…

We really wanted to stay at the treehouse in Paihia another night, but it wasn’t available, so we decided to drive across the Northland and down the west coast, known as the Kauri Coast, and break our journey back to Auckland with a one night stop along the way. En route, we decided to visit…

Russell is a charming town a short ferry ride away from Paihia that belies its reputation, earned during the whaling days of the early 19th century, as the Hellhole of the Pacific. In those days it was called by its Māori name, Kororāreka, meaning ‘sweet blue penguin’ after an ailing Māori chief drank some blue…

One of the reasons we decided to go to the Bay of Islands was to visit the Waitangi Treaty Grounds just outside of Paihia. The 1840 treaty between Māori chiefs and representatives of the British Empire signed at Waitangi is considered the founding document of New Zealand and we have learned over and over how…

Fresh off the plane we drove up the east coast of New Zealand from Auckland to the Bay of Islands. The journey should have taken about 4 leisurely hours, but it took us all day—Tom insists it’s because I have to see EVERYTHING, but I contend it’s Google’s fault the drive was so long and…

After the whole banana incident, which I must add that Tom took with complete equanimity, it was still only about 6:30 in the morning (after a nearly 13 hour flight) and groggy and gobsmacked as we were, it was time to go find our rental car.  We were renting from a company called Discount Car…