Cleared for Departure
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A Day at the Theme Park
Imagine a world where 80% of the population has died or vanished. A group of survivors decide to create a realistic downtown theme park, a homage to how things were before the Event. Let’s call this theme park Wellington. Continue …
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Wellington
A tour of Te Papa and the “arts” of Wellington. Continue …
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Wagons … NORTH!
To Wellington! Continue …
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Stewart & Ulva Island
After a two hour drive to Stewart Island and a one hour ferry ride, we arrived at Oban on Stewart Island. RBD’s first words to me were, “Why are we here again?” As you can see below, downtown is a little different than what we’re used to. The answer isn’t very clear to me, either. Continue …
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Doubtful Sound, Part 2
A.k.a. Doubtful Silence We awoke to the anchor of the ship being hoisted. Hard to sleep through that. It drones on for minutes and rattles your soul. After herding us through breakfast, we were herded to the outside of the ship to experience the sounds of the fiord. The crew shut the ship down completely Continue …
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Doubtful Sound, Part 1
The landscape surrounding us really cannot be described. We are deep in Fiordland National Park, located in the Fiordland District, floating on The Doubtful Sound. Around us is a rain forrest so thick and mountains so steep, a majority of the land has never felt a human footprint, ever. Waterfalls hundreds of feet high emptied Continue …
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I Taste Cherry and Pink Marshmallow
We decided to tackle Queenstown Hill after breakfast. Two hours and 1300 feet later, I was cursing the New Zealand penchant for snarky understatement. Where I come from hills barely raise your heart rate. This was a two and a half hour slog straight up. Even more maddening were the Kiwis who passed us barely Continue …
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Jump, Shop, Eat
Welcome to Queenstown, the “adrenaline capital of the world.” The city where bungee jumping became a thing. Continue …
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Welcome to Aotearoa
We departed JFK early in the morning. Sadly, the check engine light (pilot’s words) came on, so we sat. At one point they even “rebooted the plane.” Clearly Delta must use Window to power the whole thing. Mildly concerning. While most of us ignore that yellow check engine light, I suspect we wouldn’t if driving Continue …
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This Is Only a Test
Hello and welcome! Thank you all for joining me and RBD on our second trip to New Zealand. We depart on Saturday, December 16th and arrive two days later. Continue …
Cleared for Departure 