For the umpteenth time, I was heading back to Auckland today. Due to the wireless internet which died on my the previous night suddenly becoming active again at 7:10am, I wasted a lot of time first thing and only just made it to the ferry in time to get back to the mainland. The crossing [...]

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Back in the hotel I made full use of the shower and free internet until dinnertime – including finding out about the sad death of Steve Irwin. People as driven and as passionate about wildlife as this man are pitifully few in this day and age. He may have been a complete Aussie nutcase, but [...]

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 By the time we arrived, I should have been exhausted. After all, I’d barely had 2 hours’ sleep the night before but for some reason all I wanted to do was wander around instead of crashing out. The South Sea hotel I’d booked into was right on the front by the bay so very easy [...]

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 Invercargill is 150 this year. I feel about the same age after my journey down. The coach set off at 5:30pm from Christchurch and was pretty much fully laden after a pickup at the airport. Most people on board were only heading as far as Dunedin, where we were due just before midnight. I was [...]

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I arrived yesterday from Sydney at around 2pm. And I didn’t get through to meet Rob in the arrivals area till almost 3pm as I was “randomly” selected to have my luggage gone through by a very pleasant (no sarcasm, he was) customs official. Apparently it was to check for drugs and stuff as I’d [...]

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Right, folks. I’m leaving Hanoi at 7pm on Wednesday night. Due to sitting around waiting for an ATM card that’s not turned up yet, I’ve wasted too much time so I’ve started to book things. My itinerary is now fully booked up to Brisbane: 16th August – Bus from Hanoi to Da Nang 17th – [...]

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I have just uploaded another handful of collections to the online gallery, taking us from Hanmer Springs to Queenstown in New Zealand. More coming soon! Also, check down the right hand side of this page for a rough itinerary of where I’ve been and where I’m going (and approximately when). I’ll be concreting plans over [...]

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 My last full day in New Zealand was spent on a worthwhile expedition to the local Zoo. The guidebooks listed it as “disappointing” mainly as it only has a small number of indigenous NZ species on show. Having spent a good few hours wandering around in the nice “winter” sunshine, I can say that the [...]

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 This is something Lou had been putting off until I got to New Zealand. And then we promptly forgot about it until we realised I was leaving again in a few days. To cover some ground I’m sure I’ve gone over before: The Sky Tower is the tallest tower in the southern hemisphere and (I [...]

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 When did the first Superman film come out? 1979 or thereabouts? I seem to recall being 6 or 7, running round the playground with my jacket buttoned round the neck like a cape, arm in front of me. Those days flooded back this afternoon when we saw Superman Returns on the IMAX screen in AUckland. [...]

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