With apologies to Bugs Bunny for lifting that title: I'm happy to be in Dublin at last. Crammed into steerage on a jammed airbus for 7 hours is a hard way to go, but I was able to get some sleep in between baby wails and odd smells wafting off fellow travellers. And the cold muffin and tepid coffee for breakfast? Divine. My hotel is small, clean and cute - located on Fishamble Street. Who knew fish could amble? Here they do. It's far enough from Temple Bar to avoid the crews of lads on a tear and pre-wedding hen parties [View Full Entry]

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I'm on the road June 12, this time on a toora-loor-a-luring, as my friend Mr. Right likes to call it. I've never been to Ireland, birthplace of my paternal grandfather, so I'm heading to Dublin for a short stay, then joining a hiking tour with an outfit called Extreme Ireland that will take me to Galway and the Aran Islands, then back to Dublin for a few days. Two weeks in all. Hope you will come along. I hear they have beer there. And you know how much fun I am when there's beer! [View Full Entry]

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Kia Ora: There can't be a better way to see a place than from a bicycle. I hooked up with Bike De-Vine for a wonderful day-long trip. I was on my own and for $60 NZ got pick up and drop off at my hotel, water, map and a route they custom-designed for me to let me get to Te Mata Winery, which was one I was keen to taste at. The day was like all the others have been, clear, cloudless blue sky, brilliant sun and coolish temps. Ideal for cycling. I pedaled through two towns - Hastings and Havelock [View Full Entry]

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Stop the presses! Quit tasting wine and marveling at art deco! The local Santa Claus in the village of Levin near Wellington has been sacked by the corp. sponsor for the parade because there were expanded duties - including a lolly scramble - and they wanted to try someone new. Not your fault, Kris, we're just headed in a new direction and your real beard and belly isn't working. The new Santa, old Santa says, had lopsided belly padding, crappy fake beard and was rubbish "and I told him so." Quel scandale! In other news... 1. "Kids warned off cold cheerios" [View Full Entry]

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Greetings blog watchers: I boarded an Air New Zealand prop plane in chilly drizzle last night and landed in the sunny and warm Hawke's Bay region of the North Island. Once again, I feel like I've landed in the travellers' version of hog heaven. The small seaside town ringed by hills filled with homes that perch dramatically all the way up, was all but flattened in a 1931 earthquake. When it was rebuild, art deco was all the rage and so the town is predominately in that style. I'd say 75 per cent of the place is tropical deco - think [View Full Entry]

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I'm always leery of those "things to do before you die" places to visit. What happens when you see them? Do you die? What if they tank and disappoint? Do you die anyway? And since I was seeing two of them - Aitutaki and the famous TranzAlpine railway trek on this odyssey - was I setting myself up? Happy to say Aitutaki was amazing. And I am still here. And yesterday's trip across the spine of New Zealand's South Island, from Christchurch to Greymouth and back in about 8 hours was simply breathtaking. You truly feel the scope of the land, [View Full Entry]

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Kia Ora from New Zealand! It's been a couple of days since I had a chance to blog - 3 in reality as I lost a day coming here - left Sat. morning at 4 ayem and landed 4 hours later and on Sunday morning. So I am owed a Saturday night that I will never have and plan to chase after it with gusto. So let's rewind a bit to Friday and my last day on Rarotonga. That it started and ended with tears will likely not surprise you. I pedalled out to Takitumu school for the 8:30 drumbeats and [View Full Entry]

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Kia Orana: Back at the Deli-licious for a flat white coffee and a spot of blogging.... Well, if you can't find news, make it. So when the Global Volunteers headed off to a local art gallery for the opening of an art exhibit of paddles painted by artists in honour of the vaka races, we ended up in the local weekly's around-the-town column. They must have liked the photo of me. They ran it twice. Hard to believe just one more day here and then time to say goodbye. I feel I've made some very special friendships here and the loveliness [View Full Entry]

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And now for today's completely unsubstantiated island fable. It seems Queen Elizabeth was here on a Royal visit some years back and one of the corgis got out and enthusiastically introduced himself to the local female canine population. And hence the local stray dog population, which is substantial, features an impressive number of run-of-the-mill mutts on stubby corgi legs. They're quite hilarious. A photo will soon follow..... [View Full Entry]

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Kia Orana blogger pals: This one must be short - we're off to the Edgewater tonight to see the Island Show starring some of the young dancers I embarrassed myself with at dance practise last week. But I have to tell you about these amazing vaka (outrigger canoe) championship races going on. It's a yearly event and boats have come from all over - NZ, OZ, Fiji, Hawaii, and all over the South Pacific. They race different distances just beyond the reef - 6, 8, 10K and so on, culimating in a round-the-island monster this weekend. Sounds not so tough? Get [View Full Entry]

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