I was speaking to a total stranger about New Zealand recently. At a certain point in the conversation, he told me he’d never heard anybody say a bad word about the country. “Same for me,” I said. And it was true. Over the course of two separate New Zealand trips, and a total of 18 …
May 7, 2007, 12:30pm I’m on Easter Island! Let me repeat that. I’m on Easter Fricking Island!!! Easter Island is everything Tahiti is not. Few tourists. Few people. Reasonable humidity. Isolated. Cheap. Clean. I’m staying at a guesthouse called Chez Cecilia run by a woman named, you guessed it, Cecilia. The price is very reasonable …
Over my years on the road, several times I have found myself circling back to the Land of the Long White Cloud (a common nickname and translation for Aotearoa, the Maori name for the country). New Zealand is a country best known to some as Middle Earth (yet another fun fact and a nickname given …
Australia is among the wealthiest countries in the world, and it’s the sixth-largest country by land size. Don’t be fooled by the size, though, as the interior is sparsely populated, and most of the life is lived along the eastern and southern rim of the continent. That means when you’re planning a trip to Australia, …
From the World Heritage inscription for the Willandra Lakes Region: The Willandra Lakes Region, in the semi-arid zone in southwest New South Wales (NSW), contains a relict lake system whose sediments, geomorphology and soils contain an outstanding record of a low-altitude, non-glaciated Pleistocene landscape. It also contains an outstanding record of the glacial-interglacial climatic oscillations …
I spent the last few days doing nothing but burning DVDs. It was really boring and frustrating. I had a stack of 50 DVDs which I started with. About 20 of the 50 didn’t work properly. I purchased a smaller stack of 20 and about 6 of those didn’t work properly. I learned a valuable …
The most valuable thing I carry around with me isn’t my computer or my cameras. It is my photos. I can replace any of the equipment I have, but I can’t replace the photos I’ve taken. That raises a pretty big problem for me. How can I make sure that I don’t lose the photos …
From the World Heritage inscription for Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park: This park, formerly called Uluru (Ayers Rock or Mount Olga) National Park, features spectacular geological formations that dominate the vast red sandy plain of central Australia. Uluru, an immense monolith, and Kata Tjuta, the rock domes located west of Uluru, form part of the traditional …
“Beautiful one day, perfect the next”—Queensland tourism was spot on when they created that slogan. With warm tropical weather all year round, Queensland, Australia is the perfect spot for a getaway any time of the year. From the gorgeous Queensland beaches, laid back cities, and stunning outback landscapes, there are plenty of things to do …