AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND – We hear a lot about bungee jumping and hot springs in Rotorua and those oh-so wonderful pinot noir wines from Otago and the sauvignon blancs from Marlborough. But even a travel guy who should know better finds himself in this wonderful country and gets surprised at the sheer variety of the place. Auckland, for example, gets vastly overshadowed by the “usual” tourist spots in New Zealand, not to mention the attention that gets showered on cities such as Sydney by visitors such as Oprah Winfrey. It doesn’t have an opera house to rival Sydney or a Read more
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BERMUDA – So, apparently Dark and Stormy isn’t just the name of a popular drink in this island nation. Ba-doom-boom. Okay, so it really was a fairly decent day overall. It’s just that I had desperately wanted a hot, clear sky and plenty of sunshine and ended up with almost no sun and a reasonable amount of drizzle. And it’s raining again this morning as I type up my notes. Still, my half-day on this lovely island was a pretty decent start to a long-weekend. And it looks like we might get a break this afternoon or maybe Saturday afternoon. Read more
Here’s a post from one of my favourite cities in the late fall of 2010… SYDNEY – Still pretty rainy here in Sydney. Unusual for this time of year, but we can probably blame El Nina. Or El Nino. Or some kind of weird climactic situation. It was close to 30 degrees here a week ago, and it’s usually in the mid-20’s by now as Sydney approaches the summer. This would be the equivalent of early May for them, so it’s usually a brilliant time of year. Instead, it’s gone from beautiful to bizarre, with daytime temperatures in the teens Read more
