Apparently learning to surf is not an activity you should be leaving to your life of retirement- something about flexible joints and the ability to jump from the prone position to upright without using a sand dial to time the jump. Nonetheless DH sees herself as something of a surfer dudette who has just not had the opportunity to ‘hang ten’ (or in our case, 'hang two'), so after our visits with the rel’ees in the Auckland area we drove,...

After regaining my land legs after the harrowing SkyTower walk DH made me do, we left Auckland with the idea of visiting DH's cousin Ian and his charming wife, Margaret, and then heading further north to start our quest for the quintessential Kiwi experience- trying all of the common and weird Kiwi sports (new ones are invented on an almost monthly basis), viewing a professional rugby game (the NZ All-Blacks are the current world champs as evidenced by the co...

When planning our multi year walkabout, we talked about the anticipation we had for all the sights, sounds, smells, and general chaos we expected to experience in some of the more exotic locales of the world. The one country I couldn't get too excited about was New Zealand- I've always looked at it as an island version of B.C. populated by Canadians with an accent. DH, on the other hand, feels a special attachment to New Zealand- she does have "rel'ee...

By just about any measure, Boracay is the number one beach destination in the Philippines. Although we’ve developed a certain beach expertise (and I think we still have that beach walk swagger) from our stay in the south of Thailand, we were heading to Boracay because it is arguably the best place on the planet to learn Kite Surfing. Deb P is always going on and on…and on and on….and on and on about the joys of kite surfing and we thought if she...

Prior to it's eruption in 1991, Mount Pinatubo was a relatively obscure mountain covered in dense forest and inhabited by several thousand indigenous people (who had fled there to escape the conquering Spanish)- it had no recorded history of volcanic activity. But when it did blow it's top in June of 1991 it went big (apparently it was the second largest explosion of the last century- that might be subject to some debate as I've seen Andrew S go off a...