Tag: New Zealand

A town of 40,000 counts as the Big Smoke around these parts. Guess I’m in rural New Zealand now. Nelson’s flat, by Wellington and Auckland standards, which makes it feel sunny and open. The Marlborough region which Nelson abuts gets the most sunshine of New Zealand—and they have the vineyards to prove it. They had […]

With the necessary preamble that this yet again is terribly disjointed—I’m not managing the grand narratives this trip that I did in England, mainly because I’m not particularly goal driven this time around in where I’m going. So. I beg leave to report that the one culinary establishment I was looking forward to in Wellington, […]

Maori TV has not been created for the entertainment of Visiting Whitey. Maori TV is enmeshed in the problematic history of Maori–Pakeha relations, with decades of Pakeha drumming their fingers waiting for the Maori to die off and swindling their land, even as they were congratulating themselves for having the best race relations in the […]

A prosperous and productive New Year to my readers, and a’ that. Oh yeah, I was in Auckland, wasn’t I? Hm. Scenic alright, especially from the vantage of Devonport, with its “dormant” volcanoes dotted with fortifications and cannons, waiting for Imperial Russian fleets that never turned up, and with a clear shot across to the […]

So, I’ve been in Wellington for, oh, 17 hours, 11 of them in a small hotel room. I’ll be back for more tomorrow, but the report so far: Wellington as seen driving in from the airport is implausibly scenic for a capital city. Suburban houses perched among hills and forests, moving in and out of […]