Travel
Take your time and enjoy places without being an automatic sightseeing machine.
Steam Engine on an Island : Kingston Flyer
I never expected to see a steam train in New Zealand. I knew they had the modern scenic trains, but I don’t think of the county as train heavy. However a lot of the land was settled and opened up in the age of steam, trains were definitely a part of the landscape. As a part of our bus ride to Milford Sound we stopped at Kingston, the other end of Lake Wakatipu from Queenstown King and Queen, huh?). There we saw the restored Kingston Flyer.
Fiordland Park : Forests, Mountains and Waterfalls
Fiordland National Park and Milford Sound were the highlight sight of my two weeks in New Zealand. There is only one road to Milford Sound and it goes through the Fiordland National Park. The drive through the three valleys and all the stops we did was my favorite part of the trip. Come take a look at this drive.
Christmas in Queenstown
I flew into New Zealand on December 23 by way of a day in Hong Kong. This meant another quick flight (who is afraid of flying now.. um, me still) to Queenstown, which would be our Christmas stop as well as the jumping off to Milford Sound. I was totally looking forward to a Christmas in the summer.
Queenstown from Above
Flying into Queenstown, New Zealand on Christmas Eve,w e decided to do something with our afternoon. We choose the gondola ride up for the view of Lake Wakatipu and the surrounding area. The skyline Gondola goes to the top of Bob’s Peak. (It really is called this. Isn’t that cool?) The views of the area are fantastic and you can watch the storms come in. Play in the gift shop and watch others defy death for an afternoon.
Trans Siberian Interview – Katie Going Global
The Trans-Siberian rail journey has been on my list for a long time. When I was still adamant about not flying, I had planned to take it out to see Japan. So when I met Katie at TBEX and she talked about going, I was intrigued to hear how it went. She has now completed the journey and here is my interview with her.
One Day in Hong Kong
Flying to New Zealand involves near 24 hours in the air depending on route from Frankfurt. This is a lot. We found a flight with Cathay Pacific that landed in Hong Kong and had a late evening flight to Auckland. This gave me one day in Hong Kong and my first tiny taste of Asia. I got to spend a single day in Hong Kong and had a blast. Here are some highlights.
Traveling with Money
I remember traveling in Europe pre-euro. (It’s only been around 10 years, I’m not that old. Ok, maybe I am but still it’s not that long ago.) In that day and age every border meant a new currency with a new name and exchange rate and bills and coins. Post Euro in Europe is easier, but still there are tons of travel destinations with their own money. It gets overwhelming in a few different ways.
Seattle Pike’s Market Other Than Fish
As I mentioned in the post about some of the oddities of Seattle, Ali and I stopped in to the city on the way to TBEX. One of my must-see’s in Seattle was Pike’s Market. I didn’t know much about it, but I wanted to see it. I had first seen it on the intro to a Real World season on MTV years ago. Yes, folks this is often how I pick what I want to see, a random snippet of TV.
