Author archive
19 March 2020
In the meantime, Malaysia, Australia and New Zealand had all closed its borders to foreigners. Covid-19 cases climbed rapidly in many countries. Travel was no longer wise. Travel restrictions and low demand meant that many flights had been cancelled. The risk of getting stranded was very high, in addition to the risk of getting an […]
12 March 2020
In January 2020, some six weeks before my visit to Manila, Taal volcano blew up. There goes my day-trip from Manila! Covi-19, a corona-virus outbreak had been brewing in China since late 2019. In February, things started going international. By early March, the world outside of China was significantly impacted. I was still happy to […]
1 March 2020
A great tropical adventure I have to travel regularly from New Zealand to see Mum in Borneo. She is 93 this year. I often combine the visit with somewhere else in the world. After all, New Zealand is far from everywhere else, so when I travel I make the most of it! Back in August […]
28 February 2020
We woke to a calm cloudless morning. If only the weather had been this perfect yesterday; not that it wasn’t good enough. We had plenty to learn about overnighting on the boat. Having left the windows open overnight, there was condensation on most surfaces on board. We needed it for the ventilation through the night […]
27 February 2020
Kim has had several boats in his lifetime. He has had his current one for a couple of years but we’ve never taken it much further than around an hour from Auckland, let alone on an overnight trip. It’s something we’ve wanted to do for more than a year but sometimes the weather conditions aren’t […]
25 February 2020
I fly at 1145 today from Nelson airport back to Auckland. The drive and the rental car return process off-airport meant that I had to leave after 0800. My drive was uneventful. As I passed Richmond on the outside of Nelson, I topped up the car and then continued to return it to Omega Car […]
24 February 2020
The “main event” of my visit to Takaka is Farewell Spit, a long piece of land at the top of South Island. It was a little hard to coordinate the dates of the daytrip because it has to fit in with the outgoing tide and daylight hours. Eg. on a certain day, it may start […]
23 February 2020
Pupu Springs My plan for the day had been to revisit some of the sights around here, and discover some new ones. Talking to my hosts, some proved too much to fit into the day. It was just the driving as some would involve a long walk from the carpark. I invited Simon, an Australian-born […]
22 February 2020
Flying off again Today I make a 3 night trip to Golden Bay at the top of New Zealand’s South Island. By flight from Auckland, Nelson is the gateway to the area for me. My flight departs at 0945 and with light weekend traffic on the roads, I left home at 0725 and made it […]
10 February 2020
Landing at Sydney around 0740, it was fairly painless going through security to the departure area. I grabbed a meal with my Priority Pass card. A bacon and egg roll, coffee, pastry and a fruit salad took up most of my AUD36 allowance. I kept the fruit salad for onboard consumption, which was just as well […]