Wines of New Zealand

April 2, 2017.Reading time 11 minutes.

Wine is my absolute favorite of all the alcoholic beverages. I have many fond memories from our first few years of marriage sitting outside on our balcony, drinking wine, snacking on cheese and crackers, and marveling at how adult we were. I am not at all an expert – as you will see if you […]

New Zealand: Auckland

March 28, 2017.Reading time 5 minutes.

New Zealand is the birthplace of adventure tourism. Specifically, Queenstown is home to the world’s first commercial bungee jump, Rotorua invented Zorbing, and Auckland is home to SkyCity. As our days in this adrenaline-fueled country came to an end, we had one last day of crazy adventure seeking left before relaxing in wine country to polish […]

New Zealand: Rotorua

March 26, 2017.Reading time 6 minutes.

There really is no place on earth quite like Rotorua. Where else are you going to wake up to the sweet smell of sulfur in your geothermal-heated hotel room to go bathe in hot springs and walk past boiling mud? No where that I can think of. I believe the guidebook even referred to Rotorua […]

New Zealand: Waitomo Caves and Hobbiton

March 23, 2017.Reading time 3 minutes.

Now I know the title of this one is weird. Two very different things crammed together: black water caving with glow worms and frolicking around a movie set for Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. Opposite as these two things are they did happen on the same day, and it was only a little […]

New Zealand: Tongariro Alpine Crossing

March 21, 2017.Reading time 7 minutes.

Normally on Christmas morning, Sean and I would be with one of our families opening presents. At the very least, we’d be at home in Dushanbe with the furbabies watching them tear through their presents because yes we are those crazy pet parents who get their babies gifts on Christmas. Fight me about it. This […]

New Zealand: Wellington, White Water Rafting, and Taupo

March 19, 2017.Reading time 4 minutes.

After 1.5 weeks driving around the beautiful South Island of New Zealand, Sean and I ditched the rental car and hopped aboard the Blue Bridge ferry bound for the North Island. I’ll write more about our last few days on the South Island later – suffice it to say, we spent two days winery hopping […]

New Zealand: Kaikoura’s Dusky Dolphins

March 18, 2017.Reading time 7 minutes.

It’s been my dream to swim with dolphins since I knew that was such a thing. They are beautiful, intelligent, playful animals. Who wouldn’t want to hang out with them?! Then, in 2010, I saw The Cove. My lifelong dream of swimming with dolphins was gone. There was no way I would support an industry […]

New Zealand: Christchurch

February 9, 2017.Reading time 3 minutes.

So I’m falling quite behind on my New Zealand blogs. There’s some stuff going on in my personal life right now that’s eating up a lot of my free time. Nothing bad! Actually really exciting and I hope I’ll be able to talk more about it this spring. It’s just one of those things I don’t want […]

New Zealand: Mount Cook and Lake Tekapo

January 25, 2017.Reading time 6 minutes.

After a few days of city hopping, Sean and I were ready to commune with nature. We spent the morning and early afternoon of our fourth day on the South Island in Oamaru before driving approximately 200 kilometers (125 miles) to the Mount Cook Village. Mount Cook, also known as Aoraki, is the tallest peak in […]

New Zealand: Queenstown, Dunedin, and Oamaru

January 17, 2017.Reading time 6 minutes.

You may be wondering why I’m lumping three cities together in one blog post. A few reasons, really. One, if I blogged about every city individually I would have to change the name of this blog to KMCNewZealand: a place where we only talk about one trip forever and ever. And two, if I blogged […]