ARROWTOWN, New Zealand – You might call it a double-dose of Middle-earth. For a Tolkien junkie, it’s heaven. Although I don’t fit that profile – Frodo isn’t my go-go guy – I did read J.R.R. Tolkien’s stuff to my kid, and wasn’t going to miss a chance to plunge into the splendors of Middle-earth (aka New Zealand) that Oscar-winning producer-director Peter Jackson, a native, … [Read more...] about FOR ALL YOU TOLKIEN/HOBBIT JUNKIES NEW ZEALAND’S THE PLACE WHERE THE BOOKS AND MOVIES SPRING TO LIFE
New Zealand
A COOK’S TOUR OF THE ENDEAVOUR
WELLINGTON, New Zealand – Is Captain Cook receiving visitors today? Alastair Shaw, standing on the deck of Cook’s glorified (nonetheless illustrious) sailboat called the Endeavour, replies, “Sorry, you’re 222 years too late. The good captain departed this earth in 1779. Actually you’ve missed him by 232 years, since the Endeavour reached New Zealand in 1769.” Oh, I knew … [Read more...] about A COOK’S TOUR OF THE ENDEAVOUR
CLIMBING A VOLCANO IS FUN, FOR SOME
WHAKAPAPA, New Zealand – Because it’s there, I know I shouldn’t be. “It” is the volcanic Mount Ruapehu, looming and with the appearance of a gigantic molar with cavities. “Looks like a sweet climb,” enthuses my friend, Aurelio, who would never deny that a mountain goat teeters somewhere on some altitudinous limb of her family tree. Looks like a sweat climb to me. So, … [Read more...] about CLIMBING A VOLCANO IS FUN, FOR SOME
IT’S LIKE VISITING A SUNNY ENGLAND; CHRISTCHURCH, NZ, SHINES
CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand – Punters, pole-taxing themselves, move their narrow wooden boats through the the city with grunts and shoves as part of the scene of a small, charming city that might have been shipped in from England in 1850 as a gift from the British Empire’s Big Mama, Queen Victoria. You could be in Oxford or Cambridge, except that the summer sun in Christchurch … [Read more...] about IT’S LIKE VISITING A SUNNY ENGLAND; CHRISTCHURCH, NZ, SHINES
CALL IT NEW ZEALAND GOTHIC; CAROLINE AND COLIN TREAT THEIR GUESTS LIKE FAMILY
WHATAROA, New Zealand – The cows are happy, and so are the customers, because Mom and Pop take such good care of them. New Zealand Gothic. That’s the portrait I’ll keep in mind of Caroline and Colin Dodunski, the proprietors of Sleepy-Hollow Farm on the lush west coast. He does the farming, she does the feeding and fussing with the guests. Between them they make you part of … [Read more...] about CALL IT NEW ZEALAND GOTHIC; CAROLINE AND COLIN TREAT THEIR GUESTS LIKE FAMILY