Baaaaaaa
So many sheep in New Zealand. So many lambs and so many sheep freshly shorn. EVERY time I see some trotting or grazing in the fields from the bus, I say, "awww!" Every time. I want to hug his baby sister and shear his cousin.…
Dance party for one. Under the stars.
After the rain and riding a bike 7 miles in gale force winds, and my needed nap, I took a walk at dusk. I had the park to myself in the drizzle. To my left on the path i could see chalets. On the right? Just the tallest mountains in New Zealand, sile…
Everyday Power: Community found in tragedy
There is a pair of black rain boots neatly laid beside the Avon, as the river gently winds through the city, banked on either side by grass and here, yellow flowers. No one is around. The next day, I am back in this same spot, and there is a small…
I can nearly hear you.
The end of the road ... 6 hours hiking round trip to arrive at the end of Hooker Lake with Mt . Cook in the background. Just stunning. If there is God or something else, I will find it out here and not inside brick or cement walls. I sat for a long…
Just how lovesick and hungry are YOU?
I love shrimp. Especially fresh-caught prawns straight off the trawler. Do I love them so much I could sit in a fast-foot restaurant booth for a week and eat them? I don't know. This girl was so lovelost that she stayed an entire week in a KF…
Everyday people: Finding the music after the quake
"I thought about leaving Christchurch but I was born here." Mason Joseph Hurrell is sitting beside me on the "dance floor" — taking a break. He and his friends have come to dance in this vacant lot, where once a building stood…
I will not cry and wail. I will NOT cry and wail.
This is the last photo I took with my professional Nikon I saved for. It should be better, right? I'm in Christchurch, New Zealand. I started my day a bit unmotivated after the chaos at the airport and the messed up return airfare, but it got…
No NZ flight for you!
No New Zealand flight for you! (Make sure you say that in the "Soup Nazi" Seinfeld voice) For the very first time, I have missed my international flight. I was there. I was in line. I had to produce a ticket proving I will leave New Zeal…
YOU will tell our story.
My final day in the final Kaalamaya speaker's truck, Brian took me to where he grew up. Then he told me he has rapid-onset Alzheimer's and in a few months? All of this will be lost. He is the final speaker, the only one of his Aboriginal mob…