It’s a soapy sudsy world of deceit: In France, a conspiracy was uncovered recently that saw the major makers of laundry detergent including agreeing on not lowering prices and barring Buy-one-Get-one specials between 1997 and 2004. There was even a cartel with codenames, according to a story in today’s WSJ. […]
Bob Pollitt made a big move about eighteen months ago. He sold his five cafes in and around Bristol, England and moved with his teenagers and his wife all the way down to Matakana New Zealand. Today he’s enjoying running the biggest and busiest restaurant in this town that’s a […]
If there is one symbol of all of the North Island New Zealand places I’ve been on this trip, it would be the Kauri tree. This tree shaped the country and made the economy and determined what people did when they first arrived here. It’s a sad story of timber […]
I drove and drove, up and around, past stunning vistas, past thousands of cows and hundreds of grazing white tailed deer, past mirrors that showed the other side, and around hairpin curves and long sweeping straight-aways…. I had set out from Matakana and drove right past the big metropolis of […]
On my last morning in Omapere, I visited a man who I had heard about on the motorboat over to the Dunes. His name is Jim Taranaki and he’s happy to be doing what he loves, every day, and sharing his art with visitors who come see him in his […]
We sat in silence, in awe, of what might be the world’s biggest tree, standing before us in the moonlight in a deep dark forest called Waipoua. This was Te Manua Ngahere, the Father of the Forest, the oldest known Kauri tree which started as a tiny seed 4000 years […]
Some of my favorite moments in travel are when I feel like Bond. James Bond. The movies are always set in exotic locations, and he always checks into swank hotels, with his tuxedo ready for a night at the casino, that inevitably will turn into an exciting chase and battle […]
Yesterday was a gray day down here by the sea, and when I woke up, a big cruise ship was moored off the coast of Paihia. I had an afternoon free after our rowing trip on the Waka so I dialed in an address to the GPS and drove my […]
“This isn’t part of the tour. You paid to take a trip on the boat and listen to me talk, but you didn’t pay for this part,” Hone told us this as he stood in the back of the long Waka, the traditional boats used in the South Pacific. I […]
The day was on the water for the most part, but earlier, I drove the winding roads, past grazing sheep and logging trucks to an amazing spot some people from Sydney told me about on the dinner cruise…the Manginangina Kauri Walk, a forest preserve full of ancient trees. The Kauri […]
But Chip, we ARE tourists! Fred McMurray said this on an episode of “My Three Sons” when the family was on a European vacation. My job as a travel writer often takes me places that on the face of it, are pretty touristy, but again and again, I find I’m […]