Destinations Posts

Almost exactly a year ago I visited Matamata, New Zealand to take part in an official tour of Hobbiton, the actual set where the Hobbits lived in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. Prior to the visit my friends and I all had to sign papers saying we wouldn’t publicize any photos prior to the release of the Hobbit (since the newly reconstructed Hobbiton set contained some elements not visible in The Lord of the Rings trilogy). Since the world premiere of The Hobbit is today in Wellington, I figure at this point in time there’s no problem finally publishing the photos from that day. We were actually quite fortunate: had you visited Hobbiton in the 10 years since The Lord of the Rings you would have just seen a few Hobbit-hole façades. The actual set was mostly destroyed after the original trilogy, with only a few items […]

I left Vancouver approximately five weeks ago, and headed for Malta via Paris. My ultimate goal was to end up in Serbia, but I thought I would stop and visit two friends of mine that I met in Kuala Lumpur last year: Krisztina and Debbie. Here’s a summary of my one-week visit to Malta. Despite all the travel I do, I actually really hate flying, and would say I have a mild phobia. To counteract that, I usually have a bottle of Ativan (anti-anxiety medication) with me on the plane. For short haul flights (generally less than an hour or so), I typically don’t bother, since I’ll end up feeling a bit loopy after the plane lands. But anything over that amount of time and I usually pop a pill to calm my nerves on the plane. That’s why for the most part I generally stick with bigger name schedule […]

To be honest, it still feels a bit strange to be using the “Argentina” category on this blog again. When I left in March of last year, I wrote my final entry and had not envisioned coming back so soon. But as I mentioned in my previous post, after being away for a while I started to miss some of the better parts of this city, as well as some of the friends that I have here. Buenos Aires was my first trip that I set out on in January of 2011. I was still a very green and naive traveller, not really knowing what to expect or how I would deal with new situations. Back then many of my experiences seemed frustrating, and the first six weeks or so were a bit hard since I didn’t know anyone really in the city. After a year of travel I thought […]

In just a few days I’ll be leaving for the city of Buenos Aires again. As people who read this blog know, I started off this great travel adventure of mine last year in that very city. At the time I was a pretty green traveler, and struggled with the language and figuring out how the city worked for the first month or so of my trip. I was frustrated a few times, and a little disheartened with how hard it was at first to meet people. But I eventually overcame most of those obstacles, and probably grew as a person in the process. When my three months were up in Argentina, I was looking forward to heading to New York and to Ireland. But I really enjoyed my time in Argentina, the people I met, and the culture I got to experience. Over the last year or so I’ve […]

Back when I was in Thailand, Scott and Sam gave me the official invite to their wedding in Cape Town, South Africa for March of 2012. I was actually really excited about visiting Cape Town, but after leaving New Zealand I was pretty much out of money and had a lot of expenses back home to deal with. But I decided it was important for me to go, so I bit the bullet and purchased a $1,500 plane ticket to Cape Town, South Africa, leaving from Las Vegas (flights are always quite a bit cheaper out of the United States, and I was going to be down there for my mom’s birthday anyways). Journey Cape Town is pretty much as far away from Vancouver/Las Vegas as you can get. My journey consisted of a 10 hour flight from Las Vegas to London, a 2.5 hour layover in London, followed by […]

Now that I’ve had time to reflect on my time in New Zealand, I thought I would post an update with what I thought of the country in general. First, New Zealand is gorgeous. I didn’t get a chance to visit the South Island on this trip, but I made my way from tip to tip of the North Island. One thing that’s pretty amazing there is just how green the grass is. We have green grass in Canada, but it’s more of a florescent green in New Zealand – it’s pretty surreal. It’s like what grass looks like when you bump the saturation up on a typical grass shot in photoshop, except you don’t have to do that in New Zealand. In addition much of the landscape involves rolling hills, which made for some pretty spectacular vistas. Costs Given that New Zealand is essentially a series of two islands […]

In less than three days I’ll be vacating my little apartment here in Auckland and hitting the open road again. Most people told me beforehand that Auckland wouldn’t be that interesting, but I quite enjoyed my time here. Here is a summary about my four week visit to Auckland, New Zealand. First, I took two weekends worth of sailing lessons from a pretty famous New Zealander named Penny Whiting. While I still have a ways to go, I now have a Certificate of Sailing Competency, which should allow me to charter a boat on my travels if I want. Penny was a great teacher, and she’s well known for being a commentator during the America’s cup and other sailing events. She’s even been awarded a M.B.E. for her contributions to sailing – very impressive. Second, the pub scene in Auckland is pretty decent. It’s not like Portland, Oregon or anything […]

Last summer I was sitting in a rented room in Vancouver, trying to decide where I was going to go next on my little adventure. I had always had New Zealand at the top of my list, but given how it was winter in the southern hemisphere, I needed to come up with a plan that didn’t involve freezing to death. After all, I am a migratory nerd, so I should probably follow the sunshine. That’s when my friends, Scott and Sam, contacted me and said they were going to be in Thailand for a few months and that I should come for a visit. Thailand: land of smiles; I like happy people, so it seemed like a good fit. Before I knew it, I had booked a multi-leg journey from Vancouver, to Thailand (via Tokyo), to Auckland and home. It cost me about $2,000, but I figured given the […]

I’m only in Auckland until the end of the month, but I have a pretty busy schedule until then. This weekend I start sailing lessons with the Penny Whiting sailing school. It looks like there are about 8 people in our group, so it should be a fun experience. I’ve already received some introductory material, so I’ll spend the next few evenings going over it to get ready for the course on Saturday. One of the items we were told is that we’re not allowed to wear any non-white soles on the sailboat. That gave me a good excuse to go out and buy a new pair of Adidas casual shoes (a nice change from sandals). So I’m doing my best to break them in before the weekend. I also got selected to be a part of a private Tweet-up organized by Air New Zealand on the first 787 to […]

I left Koh Samui just a few days ago and flew up to Bangkok. My original plan was to spend three days in the city and then fly out to Auckland, New Zealand on the following Monday. Unfortunately though, the flood crisis in Bangkok was hitting the tipping point, and residents were being urged to get out of the city if they had the means. Since Air Canada was offering free change fees on all flights in and out of Bangkok, I decided to change my flight around. All in all it worked out for the best. Instead of a 10 hour layover in Kuala Lumpur, I ended up with a direct flight to Auckland on Thai Airways. The plane wasn’t full so ultimately I ended up having most of a row to myself. I watched about a movie and a half on the flight, and managed to sleep through […]