"Nz" Blogs & Blog Posts

Down in New Zealand there’s a fence that people go out of their way to see. This fence was the first of its kind and was built to keep invasive predators out while conserving native species. The fence was built a couple decades ago and was speciall...

So you want to be a travel writer, you want some tips? Okay, first of all, after teaching travel writing over many years I can tell you most people never get published – sad but true. In fact, that’s why I stopped teaching – it didn’t feel ri...

NZ’s Poetry Day AN ODE TO AUCKLAND Trees draped in orange, as if Buddhists Monks contemplating. Meditating like thin exclamation marks and fat full stops. Foreign-born exotics: foil to green natives. Strangers living together, proclaiming autum...

Kia ora and welcome home fellow Kiwi – especially you Covid-19 refugees. Things have changed while you have been away, so thought I could help you get up to speed in our post-Covid lives. (post-COVID as in ‘since it entered our lives̵...

Are people who do it ‘control freaks’ or are they just susceptible to the marketing practices of funeral directors or insurance companies? Do what? Arrange their own funeral, that’s what. A few generations ago grandma lay in the front room, som...

Despite coronavirus in cities and countries being locked down, I refuse to be locked in – just as all my ancestors did in the mid-1800s – fleeing Scottish clearances, Cornish tin mine closures and the Irish potato famine. And despite my t...

I’m passing thru Whanganui in a couple of days – heading further north – and we will stop to stretch our legs and have lunch. Here are some notes about the lovely little city.   When planning a road trip to Whanganui www.wanganui.com  you...