10/4/2020 Here’s a different story from my MatadorU Travel Writing essays from 2013, extolling the virtues of a two-wheeled “friend” in Amsterdam. As the wheels on my normally sturdy bike skidded to the left and right, I wondered whether my decision to cycle home in deep snow was a good idea. The numerous glasses of… Read more »
26/3/2020 Here is another, and I think more interesting, narrative essay from the MatadorU Travel Writing course I did in 2013. This is from Chapter 3, where we had to work on Original Voice. Eavesdropping On A Conversation At Dublin Airport. I walk slowly over to the hard, plastic seats near the big windows, take… Read more »
21/3/2020 I’ve been digging through my journals from the last few years but also the articles and stories I’ve kept a digital record of from a decade or more ago. I don’t read back over my journals often but since we turned a new decade this year, I thought it might be good to… Read more »
21/4/2019 Talk about rain! The very first day I landed on Waiheke Island I was greeted by a torrential downpour that lasted all day. The island, with its subtropical climate, is prone to a deluge like this though, from time to time. I flew from Wellington to Auckland and there was a very good connection… Read more »
16/4/2019 It was dark by the time I got to the cottage. I had never used Air BnB before when booking accommodation. This was the second time on this trip that I had used them and this time I was really impressed. The house I was staying in was up on the side of a… Read more »
14/4/2019 On my journey north from Christchurch to Wellington, I stayed a night in Kaikoura and a night in Picton. Kaikoura is a lovely little town on the east coast about 3 hours drive from Christchurch. In Māori, Kai means food and Koura means crayfish and there is no better place to eat crayfish than… Read more »
10/4/2019 This was my fifth visit to Christchurch. It has been very interesting to see how the city has changed over the years, especially after the 2011 earthquake. I love coming back here to see what buildings have been renovated or are still being restored and what changes or improvements there are in different suburbs,… Read more »
7/4/2019 After five days in the lovely little village of Arrowtown, I decided to head towards Lake Tekapo. The four hour Intercity Bus journey from Queenstown to Lake Tekapo was long but we took a few breaks along the way. I got a front seat on the bus, as I requested, and was able to… Read more »
2/4/2019 It was great to be back in the Land of the Long White Cloud. I spent most of April 2019 in New Zealand and had been looking forward to that for quite some time. Queenstown was my first port of call. The weather was cloudy but fine the day I arrived and Mount Cook… Read more »
20/6/2019 We got our fur-baby Xena back 6 weeks after she went missing. It was such a relief to find her. As is often the case, we only really realise how much we care for our pets after they’re gone. I had put messages on 6 Facebook pages to try and find her, put up… Read more »
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