Tara Goldin
A 29 year old Canuck, flying by the seat of her pants, and going where the wind takes her in and around New Zealand.Gldngirl
Travel Blog Posts
Oh Canada, Our Home and Native Land
Published: July 29th 2006North America » Canada » Ontario » London
July 29th 2006
For those of you who don't know yet, I am in fact back in Canada. I decided it was time to come home after I found out my Aunt passed away due to a long battle with Cancer. I'm sorry if I haven't contacted you yet, as I just returned from a trip down to see my sister in North Carolina. I'm still trying to get my bearings here in Canada (Everything is so flat!!!). There are some things that I'm having a hard time dealing with. I guess because things in New Zealand are taken at such a different pace. Things are more laid back there, and of course there is not even close to the same amount of traffic that I would experience due to living mostly in rural places. I've experienced my first ... read more
July 2nd 2006
Happy Canada Day! I hope you're all enjoying the long weekend, and having nice BBQ's to go along with it. I celebrated in my own way, and enjoying another free concert by a NZ reggae group called Katchafire! We were all dancing in the cold frosty weather last night. I'm off to see Return of the King soon, so this is only a short little entry. Happy Canada Day again!!... read more
June 28th 2006
The past two days I've been busy enjoying what Wellington has to offer. Because the Maori New Year has just started, they have little workshops that you can be a part of for free here at Te Papa (which means "our place" in Maori). I've been in this museum a couple of times before and there is always something new to do when I roll into town. Yesterday, I was part of a Maori prounounciation workshop, and a workshop explaining a little more about my base knowlege of the haka. I learned how to break up Maori words to help me speak them properly, and also how the vowels are supposed to be spoken. I also learned that the haka, is not just something the All Blacks do. A haka can be about any subject you ... read more
June 25th 2006
Hi Everyone! I've had an exciting last week here in New Zealand, as my time here comes to an end. After leaving my job at the vineyard, I headed south to Christchurch on my last road trip with Pip as my ever constant companion. I decided to hit the pavement and post flyers for the van at local hostels. I then spent the next 6 days at a backpackers car market. It seemed a good idea at the time. You basically pay a parking fee at this car market, and it's then a waiting game for the right person to walk in the door. During this time, I think I watched about 20 movies. It needs to be a good span of time before I see Training Day again! But as luck would have it, the ... read more
June 10th 2006
Hi Everyone, Sorry it has been so long in between updates, but since I've pretty much been just working, there's nothing exciting to report! My job at Montana's has been going well, and it's been a little hard going. I'm basically trimming the vines down to what they call canes which are the major branches that produce the fruit every year. I am then pruning, which is taking all the nubs off of the canes. I am then wrapping and tying down the canes onto the wires. It's a decent process and at times can take 10 minutes to do one plant. The mornings here are cold and my hat with ear flaps is presently being bidded on by a couple of the permanent workers at the vineyard. Seems they want it when I leave. Today ... read more
May 18th 2006
Hi Everyone and Kia Ora! This past weekend I went on a little road trip with a nice Scottish girl named Sarah. We decided to go to Christchurch for a rugby game. Since we both have never been to one, we figured we'd go and check out the Canterbury Crusaders. It so happens that they were playing the Brumbies, a nice Austrailian team so it was good rivalry. I can tell you that the energy in the area at the stadium was great! But I can also say that I was a cold night to be in an open stadium. There's nothing like doing the wave to get the blood pumping though. We had a great time, cheering and jeering during the game. The Crusaders came out on top and I was very happy to see ... read more
May 2nd 2006
Since my last update, I have sadly left the Queenstown region and made my way up the West Coast, seeing many great and wonderous things. What's so great about NZ is that one minute you can be near a glacier, then 10 minutes down the road you're in a rainforest! After leaving Wanaka, I drove through one of the many mountain passes through to the West Coast. Gladly, there was no snow or rain to contend with so that meant no road closures or landslides. I can't count how many beautiful waterfalls coming from the mountains that I passed. And if I were to stop to take all of their pictures, I surely would have no memory left on my card. I passed many rivers on this journey, and their deep blue or green colour. I ... read more
April 26th 2006
For those of you who were extremely jealous of the warm weather I was having while you were suffering with winter....well have a chuckle to yourselves now. While I was driving out of Queenstown I encountered this!!!!!! I went to a great fun place called Puzzling World in Wanaka. The two pictures are just a slice of what they have there. These pictures demonstrate how Peter Jackson designed some of the sets for LOTR. One minute I'm perceived as a hobbit, the next a giant! I thought it was pretty cool. They also had a room where it's all tilted, things seems to defy our perception of gravity. A ball on a pool table, a chair on a rail and water seem to all go up a slant. This room also makes you dizzy. I just ... read more
April 25th 2006
I decided that Queenstown would deserve at least 2 days for me to spend in it. I checked into a cute little backpackers called Southern Laughter. I then went out of Queenstown to do my bungee jump with A.J. Hackett. A.J. Hackett was the person or company who took the concept of bungee jumping from natives in Vanawatu and translated it into an ultimately safer sport. It was so much easier then my first jump I must say. I didn't have to climb up a construction crane to do it! I just had to walk up a couple stairs and then onto a bridge over a nice, but cold river. I have to admit that I was quite nervous, so nervous that I had to take a gravol for my stomach. The staff are lovely, and ... read more
April 19th 2006
I decided yesterday to take a day and go explore Queenstown, and since it's only an hour out of Wanaka, it could be a day trip. Instead of taking the nice leisurely way around some of the ranges, I thought I could cut some time off the journey and take the range pass way. It was pretty hair raising at times. I mean, only if you don't think about falling off the road due to no guard rails. If I could do anything, I would run for government here, and have my cause go towards putting guard rails up here in this lovely country. After that, I went to a lovely little town called Arrowtown. It (back in the day) was used as a goldmining town. It's quite quant, and they have lovely mining houses that ... read more
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