Category Archives: Travel

Kasey turned the big 2-6 on the eve of 2014. She has been wanting to go skydiving and said she wouldn’t go if it was over $250. I shook my head and said, “Oh yeah, sure, me too.” When Kasey mentioned her desire to our host, Judy, her eyes lit up and she shimmied overContinue reading “skydove.”

I feel like today could be the first day of the rest of my literary life. Did that come across too strongly? Brittany found a job for us near Wanaka and the host is a beautiful travel writer who also just finished her first teenage novel. To top it all off, Carla recently opened herContinue reading “it’s all comin’ together.”

Tony, our new friend’s friend’s brother, had us over for “tea” tonight, which actually meant dinner. Before we went over, Brittany was trying to decide if she should have tea when we were heating up the water and she said, “Well, I don’t want to be all tea-ed out if we’re having tea at Tony’s.”Continue reading “how unexpected!”

New Year’s Eve Eve As I was sitting in Judy’s comfortable leather chair typing away, Kasey said, “Are you writing about how hard it is as adults to make friends?” I wasn’t. But she’s right. It has been hard to make friends, except for the hosts we’ve been staying with. We met Irish Joe andContinue reading “friends.”

We’re currently in Wanaka on the west coast near the Southern Alps. It’s a town we’ve been anxious to get to and it’s living up to every expectation so far. The only negative part is the work we’re doing: killing rabbits. I’ve loved rabbits since Ms. Zaremski’s 4th grade class bunny named Hershey. I beggedContinue reading “wabbits from wanaka.”

We left lovely Golden Bay to head down the west coast. We took the scenic route along the water (next to huge mountains) in order to see a rock formation dubbed the Pancake Rocks. We stopped at the one hoppin’ restaurant in town and ordered the cheapest things we could find. 54 minutes later, weContinue reading “pancake rocks with a little bit of sunset on top.”

Wild Bill is as cool as he is wild. He lives on top of a hill overlooking the bay, surrounded by a porch with no railings that makes the view look even larger. Him and Linda have an outdoor bathtub that they use every day to get clean and I imagine, to be reminded howContinue reading “golden.”

I’ve been made fun of for saying, “Oh that person reminds me of my friend from Mast (an outdoor store I worked at in Asheville).” Kasey finally said, “everyone here reminds you of someone from Mast.” But our new host, Kris, is truly like a Mast model. He wears the plaid shirts and the floppyContinue reading “grapevine.”

Jonathan Kenneth is a world champion cyclist and the head of NZ cycling trails. He has written many books about the best cycling in New Zealand. He rode up this morning to help on the trail. He is impressive in many ways. Over a cup of tea, he said, “It’s such an amazing thing toContinue reading “last of the ghost lake saga.”