Audrey in Piha
My awesome sister Audrey is visiting from the States for a few weeks. Here are some pictures of our trip to New Zealand’s renowned Piha.
My awesome sister Audrey is visiting from the States for a few weeks. Here are some pictures of our trip to New Zealand’s renowned Piha.
DAY ONE: We left grey, rainy Auckland at 9:47 on Sunday morning, 30 December 2012. We couldn’t wait to get out. Although Saturday, the 29th was a stellar day, the sort of day Pacific Island poets harp on about, we couldn’t wait to get away from the utterly unstable weather of the region. It just…
Eye fillet steak pies with a puff pastry top and buttery potato mash. The base recipe is here. I modified the recipe quite a bit: I cubed beef-eye fillets instead of using mince (or ground beef, as Americans would say). This creates delicious chunks of tender beef that cook in roughly the same time as…
Hobbits aren’t the only ones who get to enjoy New Zealand’s amazing landscapes. In October, we took up lodging in Ahipara, about 4 hours northwest of Auckland, in the remote Northland. Ahipara is a surfing destination, a bit boring, but it’s a great base for exploring far more interesting and beautiful places up thataway.
When people ask me why I moved to New Zealand, I have all sorts of canned answers. Today, I have a very concrete and unique one: because the scale of things here allows thinkers to wrap their heads around complexity at the level of society. American society, especially when you get into urban planning, regulatory…
It is astonishing to me that New Zealand’s parliament, by a vote of 107-10, today increased the powers of the SIS, or Security Intelligence Service. They used the World Rugby Cup as a catalyst for this. The powers include improved ability to deal with high-tech communications like computers and mobile phones. In short, they have…
I hate to disappoint my American friends, but you won’t like New Zealand because they aren’t really interested in military porn. They are savages, those kiwis. They think about things like peacefully coexisting with their neighbors, avoiding conflicts with folk who have nothing at all to do with their affairs. Obviously, they have a problem,…
Today, after returning home from an errand, I tethered my Beagles to a post on the sidewalk in front of the house. My plan was to brush them. Leaving the front door open, I carried in my bags. When I came back down the stairs, I noticed that a woman and her baby (in a…
In my Why Leave America post, I cast a wide net over the cancers of America that so keenly appall me. On a more positive note, I’d like to address several of the reasons why New Zealand is a much better place to live. New Zealand is a small country with a small population (just…