Salty Arms & Other Tales of Abel Tasman National Park
::Nelson, New Zealand:: OK, let’s be honest – who doesn’t love pirates? I saw that doggone Johnny Depp movie like 8 times in the theater, I say “ARRRR” a lot on September 19 and I think pretty much the entire generation of kids born in the ’80′s wanted to be a Goonie. Pirates have adventures, make discoveries, sit around drinking rum and talking about ancient legends and their pets always talk cryptically like some sort of obnoxious, feathered sphinx. I, like, any good pirate/Goonie, fancy myself an outdoorsy, adventurous person. So when some...
Read MoreClimbing Fox Glacier: The Coolest Thing I Did on Vacation (Literally)
::Fox Glacier, New Zealand:: I’m not what you’d call the most graceful person in the world. Fact: I trip a lot. I also walk into things (walls, lampposts, et al). It’s a miracle I have walked the lengths of Rome, Paris, London and other such cities with moderate success, considering the plethora of obstacles just waiting to hold hands with gravity and put a not-so-awesome spring in my otherwise steady step. I thought I was on pretty solid ground in New Zealand – so few motor scooters! No post boxes in the middle of sidewalks! No flummoxing cobblestones! My...
Read MoreHotel Review: The Langham Hotel Auckland – Auckland, New Zealand
“The only thing constant in this world is change.” If I had a dime for every time someone told me this at a family gathering I’d have a much larger shoe collection. If I’d pondered these words a bit harder though, I’d also have realized they are true – for better or worse. Auckland was a wham-bam in-your-face mashup of change for my traveling pals and I. We’d spent the past 8 days moseying around New Zealand’s picturesque South Island, lobbing our weary bodies nightly into the beds of various hostels, motels, cabins and the couches of...
Read MoreArt Smart Roundtable: Fresco Rescue and the Problem of Venice
This article is part of the monthly ArtSmart Roundtable, a group of art-history-loving travel bloggers who post a related article the last Monday of each month. January’s topic is wall art, murals and frescoes – a favorite! For more related posts, check out the links at the end, or find us on Facebook here! If you know anything about frescoes (or even if you don’t, come to that)…you know a fresco is, essentially, a wall. When the plaster is still wet, an artist paints into it so that when dry, the painting is part of the exterior edifice. That would explain...
Read MoreTravel Reflections: 2011 Year in Review
Where do I start? 2011 was not a year for travel – but it was a year for change. Relationships started and ended all over the place – and that includes with my job. After 6 years in hotel-land I leapt into the world of PR…and for someone with the mind of a blogger it is a trip to keep a journalistic mentality AND an account rep mentality evenly balanced. Learning curve ahead. But I digress. 2011 was probably the year I traveled least in the past decade. I only got on a plane TWICE all year. And that was to mingle with my fellow travelers at TBEX Vancouver. I hit up...
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