This is the biggest tourist attraction on the North Island – a big crater lake surrounded by steaming hotsprings, geysers and theme park activities. We are in a cheap ($55 for two) backpackers’ hostel, which is borderline even by my minimal standards. Since we are also too cheap to pay $30 to see a geyser…
> I just can't get away! This is Whakamaru Dam. It looks safe to me.
> Here is the view from our window. I think the bus is from the company that does hop-on hop-off tours of the major attractions in the country. Backpackers get passes and stay as long as they want at each place on the route. I have to get used to taking a few representative and…
>We have left my brother's place just north of Auckland after 4 days visiting around there. New Zealand is a very civilized country – people speak English, the weather is pleasant, no volcanoes are expected to erupt in the next few weeks, and I am told there are no poisonous critters to be found. So,…
[This is a post I wrote on my i-pod on the last day of the Olympics. Now the excitement is all over and people don’t know what to talk about. The Paralympic Games start this weekend, so we are being let down somewhat gradually…] We decided to go downtown for the last day and forego…
The Winter Olympics are here in Vancouver. I will offer some assorted comments. (1) We got some very bad press at the start, but I haven’t heard much from the grouches since then. Everyone agrees that the death of the Georgian luger on the first day was awful. (2) The cauldron debacle was rightly criticized.…
People ask me about the hostels where I usually stay in my travels, thinking that they are full of bunks, backpackers and bedbugs. Rather, a “hostel” typically has some dorm rooms as well as other single or double rooms with/without private baths. The prices tend to be per person, no matter how many beds there…
On Saturday in the falling snow, J and I took a bus to a nearby village and walked 30 minutes to the little house his friend and wife have built on a hillside. The approach to the house is on a steep dirt road for which they keep a jeep. She grew up in the…
Seeing Clarely 