Jocelyn K B

Obviously many people are coming a long way to our wedding. We'd like to see you for more than a day or two, but of course you want to see New Zealand, so I am proposing we travel together for a few days after the wedding. And anyone from New Zealand who just wants a holiday is welcome to come too! We will understand if you've already made other plans or you have other destinations you'd rather visit, just thought we'd put the idea out there. Please email me to let me know what you're keen to do and how many days you can spend with us. The idea is to go to Rotorua, Taupo and Napier. Here are some possible activities: Rotorua Driving from Auckland to Rotorua takes about 3 and a half hours Soak ... read more

We spent our last couple of days in Paris visiting various tourist attractions. On Wednesday morning we had a breakfast of pain au chocolat and coffee in Montmartre, which has long been associated with artists and night-life. (BTW, I don't understand why you can't get a decent cup of coffee in Paris? I would think Parisians the people least likely in the world to accept mediocre coffee!) There were many artists in the Place du Tertre selling pretty sketches and paintings of Paris, but we managed to resist. The only souvenirs I tend to bring home from holidays are photos. The Basilique du Sacre-Coeur is a beautiful white-domed church at the peak of Montmartre hill. If you've seen 'Amelie' (one of my favourite films), you'll recognise the steps leading up the hill. We climbed to the ... read more

Tired but not too hungover, we took the train back to King's Cross, where I had a classic English lunch of salmon and cucumber sandwiches and Devonshire tea (scones with jam and clotted cream). Yum! The Eurostar took us to central Paris in a surprisingly short amount of time. We trundled our bags on and off Metro trains and found our hotel without much trouble. It was in the 15th arrondissement, a nice area near the Eiffel tower, conveniently close to the Metro and plenty of nice restaurants. The room was small, but hey, this was Paris! It was clean and the staff were helpful, so I was pleasantly surprised after some of the cockroach-ridden horror stories I'd read about other hotels online. Just before sunset, we went to Montparnasse Tower. Paris has strict building regulations ... read more

My memories of London are grey-tinged: gray buildings, grey skies and black snot. But none of that matters when there are plenty of things to do, friends to see and pubs to frequent. Tim and Abi were nice enough to put us up for a couple of nights at their place in Balham. They introduced us to an English TV series called "The Inbetweeners", which follows the misadventures of four foul-mouthed sixth-form boys. George was impressed with how "realistic" it was, which I found a little shocking. Maybe British teenagers are especially vile - I'm sure Kiwi boys were much nicer. George reckons they were just pretending while girls were around. Anyway, George loved it so much we brought the DVDs back to New Zealand, and now all our expat-Brit guy friends are walking around using ... read more

Whenever I visit a big city, I like to find a skyscraper with an observation deck. I find it helpful to get my bearings, and it's nice to get above the claustrophobic street level. In Tokyo, many people go to Tokyo Tower, a steel lattice structure similar to the Eiffel tower. Instead we went to "Tokyo City View", an observation deck in Mori Tower at Roppongi Hills, which is actually at the same height as the observatory at Tokyo Tower (250m). Unfortunately the sky deck and aquarium weren't open, but we did get fantastic 360 degree views of the city. Next we headed to Ueno Park. At Kiyomizu Kannon-do, a Buddhist temple, I had my fortune told. I handed over 200 yen to the attendant, who passed me a tube with a small hole on one ... read more