Packing for Cold Weather in China – Carry On Edition
Best Currency Card for Travel
Planning a Silk Road Itinerary – 3 Months Travel Along the Silk Road
UPDATE Well our Silk Road trip is over – 8 days after landing in Shanghai – we were landed in an emergency room of a hospital in Lanzhou – a city I never planed to overnight in… When your partner collapses on a bus to Xiahe you learn some stuff. I didn’t panic – a…
Read MoreVietnamese Visas for New Zealanders
My Vietnamese visa issued on arrival at SGN Short answer – yes you need a Vietnamese visa if you travel on a New Zealand passport. (If you are a dual citizen of the UK or some European countries – you can fly in (not a land crossing) for 15 days without a visa). Page Contents…
Read MoreWhat Happens To Tourists in New Zealand After An Earthquake
Earthquake Damage, Lyttleton, New Zealand As I write this we are tidying up after a massive 7.6 magnitude earthquake in New Zealand. The sensational reported by both local and overseas media makes it hard for tourists to get a real view of what’s happening here. So I’m writing this to add some reality to the…
Read MoreSouthern Vietnam: Costs of Independent Travel
We’ve just returned from a short 2.5 week trip to southern Vietnam. Given that Vietnam seems suddenly being promoted to New Zealanders (thanks to the many more options of flying there) I thought I’d keep a record of our expenses on the ground to give you some idea. Page Contents The Travellers My partner and…
Read MoreRoad Tripping in the Eastern USA – From an Australian/NZ Perspective
We drove 4300 miles over 4 weeks from Philadelphia and back via the Atlantic Coast, northern Florida, New Orleans and the Appalachians. It was quite a different experience – and because much of what is written about American road tripping is from an American perspective, I thought it might be fun to write from a…
Read MoreWe’ve Bought the House By The Sea!
We’ve gone uunconditional on our house! In New Zealand you have a binding contract to buy once your conditions are met – we just bought a house in Titahi Bay!We had until today to sign off our conditions – which were the building report and the council LIM. The dramas of the building report I’ve written…
Read MoreBuilding Report – Round Two
Well in my previous post I mentioned that the building report for our dream house and raised serious moisture issues.Today we went back to figure out the cause of the moisture – and the damage behind the gib (plaster board is maybe what American’s call it?) Anyway with a builder on hand – we said…
Read MoreOops – We Have Building Report Issues
Darn – I spoke too soon. Agents always say you haven’t bought or sold a house until you are unconditional – and we had a building report as a condition on this place.I went with the builder partly so I could finally take some photos inside! I wasn’t expecting him to call me over to…
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