Our day off
Coach tours are not for everybody. Of necessity they run to a fairly tight schedule and it’s important that the tour group adheres to the times for the day. Every evening Linda would tell us what time the wake-up call … Continued
Coach tours are not for everybody. Of necessity they run to a fairly tight schedule and it’s important that the tour group adheres to the times for the day. Every evening Linda would tell us what time the wake-up call … Continued
We left Auckland on Sunday morning, heading north to the Bay of Islands. The coach drove through rolling green hills which had been cleared of the native vegetation years ago. It must have been a huge job. Just how huge … Continued
Peter and I arrived in New Zealand a day early so we could spend a bit of time with a friend we hadn’t seen in years. It was a Saturday and Auckland was packed for the women’s rugby world cup. … Continued
Peter and I have just returned from a long-awaited holiday to New Zealand. Or Aotearoa if you prefer the Maori name. It was a small group bus tour, travelling in a full-size coach which normally seats around fifty. But this … Continued
I love New Zealand. It’s such a magical mix of rolling green hills, glacier-carved valleys, steep mountains, mist, rain, great food, weird animals. I’ve ticked two more items off the bucket list (Hobbiton and Rotorua), learnt heaps, met people and … Continued
It doesn’t seem to me that there’s much to talk about that’s new. The Labor Government is trying to get through industrial relations legislation which some argue will take us back to the 1980s. If true, that will be diabolical. … Continued
The Melbourne Cup has been run and won, much to the chagrin of a bunch of activists who think horse racing should be banned. But I won’t give these people any more air time. What’s more important is gambling. Gambling … Continued
As I write the United Kingdom has yet another Prime Minister. At least this time they avoided the weeks of rudderless drifting to extend the vote for the PM to the Conservative Party membership. I gather Liz Truss was not … Continued
Back in 2006 John Doyle and Tim Flannery made a mini-series entitled ‘Two Men in a Tinnie’ in which they travelled the length of the Murray-Darling River system. That year was hard. In December we were told that Australia had … Continued
There’s been a move in Australia that’s gathering pace to rename places from European names to aboriginal names. Generally speaking, it’s a great idea, especially because the European name tended to be the name of the person who ‘discovered’ the … Continued