
Songs & silence of the sounds: our journey to Milford & Doubtful Sound
We have made the big journey down to Fiordland National Park a handful of times in the past. We did […]
adventures of an American in Aotearoa New Zealand
I am an immigrant from the United States living in Wellington, New Zealand. My love affair with landscape, culture, and learning has led to a life filled with travel and academic institutions. Endowed with endless curiosity, I spend a great deal of time philosophizing about anything and everything, but very often pertaining to environmental issues. I should note that I am not formally trained in environmental philosophy, nor do I have the vocabulary competency to pass for someone who has. My writing is a somewhat tongue and cheek.
I am using this blog as a means to work through some of this thinking and to follow my own pathway of inquiry, while providing (hopefully) some meaningful insight of what it is like to live as an American in Aotearoa New Zealand. I am sure at some point there will be some interesting travel photos once I make the leap from iphone to fancy camera.
There is a secondary tab to the this blog spot. Reflections of the Watering Hole is an old blog I started during one of my academic stints studying the social and environmental impacts of oil and natural gas development in the Denver Julesburg Basin in the United States. While some of the information is a bit 'dated' (I started it in 2013), many of the conundrums remain relevant today.
We have made the big journey down to Fiordland National Park a handful of times in the past. We did […]
Te Tai Tokerau Northland is one of those destinations that look nearby on a map, but in reality take considerable […]
It took me some time to fall in love with the geothermal lake region of Aotearoa New Zealand. The first […]
Te Urewera is considered true toanga (a natural resource which is highly prized) to iwi. Once a national park, it […]
The first time we campervanned around the Coromandel we exclusively hugged the coastline visiting as many picturesque and geothermal beaches […]
Thanks for joining me! Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton
I don’t miss many things about my former life in the US beyond friends and family. Living in an area that snows is the exception. Sure I can drive to it and play in it often and the Rimutaka Ranges across the harbor from my Welly home see a dusting every so often, but I […]
Of all of our Tasmanian destinations, Cradle Mountain was what I was most looking forward to. I am a mountain […]
Our east cost time was spent at Freycinet National Park and Bay of Fires National Park, both known for their […]
I have always been intrigued with Tasmania. It seemed like some unreachable place of remoteness. Any place where prisoners were […]
Leaving the Te Paki behind us, it was time for the ‘beyond’ part of our trip, time to clean up, […]
“a thing of beauty is joy forever” – John Keats It has been a few weeks since we returned from […]
“You learn a lot when you are barefoot. The first thing is every step you take is different” – Michael Franti […]
Public holiday weekends always equate to road trips for us. Easter weekend in early autumn can tend to have iffy […]
Back on the bullet train we were headed to the Gifu and Nagano Prefectures in the Alps in search for […]
Mount Kōya We decided to make a small detour for the evening to Mount Kōya, the center of Shingon Buddhism, an important […]