Category: New Zealand
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081 | Windows :: Hobbiton, New Zealand, 2012
I’ve read all the books and seen all the movies, but I’m ashamed that until I got to New Zealand, I did not know that this was the land where most of the LoTR filming took place. Although it was not on our original itinerary, by the time we got close to Matamata, our close…
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018 | Flora :: Lake Wanaka, New Zealand, 2012
I almost forgot about the Wanaka Tree. I wish I could say it was my idea to climb the tree, but it wasn’t. A few of us were on a walk around the lake and stopped by a swing set. As the rest of us monkeyed around the tree on shore, Manon decided that she…
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017 | Flora :: Mirror Lakes, New Zealand, 2012
On my second day in New Zealand, I made a koru necklace out of cow bone at a studio in Coromandel, and wore it on the rest of my journey. The word koru means “loop” in Maori. It comes from the shape of a new leaf, that would slowly unfurl into the silver tree fern adorning…
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Road Trip Through Middle Earth
Roadtrip through Middle Earth | Make Your Own Book If there’s anything productive I can show about my one month hiatus from traveling, here it is: my first book from this trip! I chose New Zealand since it was the most definitive part of the trip, and most memorable overall. The adventures were more…
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Strap Yourself To A Beautiful Stranger…
And jump out of a perfectly good airplane from 15,000 feet! I have to say, Skydive Lake Wanaka has a pretty catchy slogan going for them. So catchy in fact, that I bought a t-shirt with that on it, after I completed the feat. Surprisingly enough I wasn’t nervous at all going into it. I…
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Queen of the Skies
Today was a busy day for the group. It was our first day in Queenstown, the capital of adventures in the south island of NZ, and everyone’s got their own idea of fun. Since the town will pretty much shut down on Christmas, we had to cram as much as we could on Day 1.…
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Playtime with the Duskies
After watching The Cove, I was torn over whether I should join the swimming with dolphins session in Kaikoura, but as these were wild dolphins that have never been captured or preyed on, I decided to go for it. The experience was amazing beyond my wildest dreams. We put on some 10mm wetsuits and headed…
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Hobbiton
I’m not a big Lord of the Rings fan, and haven’t even gotten around to reading The Hobbit. But there’s something magical about visiting the beautiful movie set for the Shire, set deep in the hills of the north island of New Zealand. I went without too much expectation, thinking it would perhaps be like…
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The Long Way to Kiwi Land
OK, here’s the story of how many things can go wrong on the road due to lack of planning, and lessons learned the hard way. I I booked my flight to Auckland, NZ some time in November, after doing some research and deciding that I would spend a few days to Kuala Lumpur. I used…