No Doubt about Doubtless Bay, New Zealand
John’s sister Ruth lived about 10 km outside the town of Mangonui, which is just off Doubtless Bay. The story is that Captain Cook sailed by but did not enter Doubtless Bay, instead, uttering the words “doubtless, a bay”....
Spontaneous Conversations with Friendly Jafa’s in Auckland
from the followsummer archive: January 2004. New Zealand was our first stop on our around the world trip. We start our morning in a sun-drenched café with coffee and muffins in the Mt. Eden neighbourhood of Auckland. John’s...
An Athenian Sunday Wander on The Acropolis
Sunday in Athens. Today is the day, it seems when all Athenians take to the street to shop, walk, chat, gossip or sit in a café and drink coffee. Everyone is out doing something. We sleep in a little after our late night and...
An Entire Year of Following Summer.
A day of travel and time for contemplation. The beginning of a year of living in the moment, following an intense period of planning, when it often seemed that we spent all our time living in the future as we laid the groundwork...
Searching for ‘Roos on Kangaroo Island, Australia
This is one of those days that Greg has been dreading. Up at 5:30!!!!! On the bus at 6:30 for the 2-hour ride to the ferry (45 minutes) that takes us across to Kangaroo Island, where there is a huge wildlife sanctuary, Flinders...
Cape Reinga: New Zealand’s Very North Tip.
Today is our first official family road trip. Ruth, John and I pack up the car and head north for the 2-hour drive to the very northern tip of New Zealand, Cape Reinga. John skillfully and successfully drives one of the cars on...
Looking Down the Dardanelles Towards Gallipoli
There is confusion at 6:30 a.m. Haluk tells us this is the Turkish way. The shuttle that has arrived to take us to the public bus station is too full to fit the 8 of us. We stand around waiting while mobile calls get made and...
Hurtling Towards the Date Line: LA to Auckland, New Zealand
We started toward the airport today about 8:30 a.m. for a 1:35 p.m. flight. With 2 in the car, we got to use the carpool lane on the highways, which helped considerably. Got to the airport a bit earlier than anticipated, checked...
First Mornings: Auckland, New Zealand
Latitude: S36° Longitude: E174° Full Moon. We got to bed at about 2:30 a.m. Auckland time (5:30 a.m. L.A. time) and we’re up about 8:30 to seek out coffee and breakfast, feeling that hazy, thumping middle of the forehead...
Farewell to New Zealand
We drive into Auckland from Doubtless Bay. It takes two cars to handle the overflow of luggage that we have brought with us (not to mention that there are six people making the journey). We take everyone out for dinner to...