VirtualTourist Member worldkiwi |  email me
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worldkiwi  
We all share one planet, so look after it and be nice to each other!
| Real Name: |
Glenn |
| Lives In: |
Auckland Region, NZ |
| Birth Date: |
January 24, 1973 |
| Member Since: |
Sep 28, 2000 |
| Last Login: |
Dec 19, 2007 13:31 UTC |
| Member's Time: |
May 12, 2008 23:30 NZST |
| VT Rank: |
430 |
| Deals Rank: |
Unranked |
| Travel Interests: |
Castle/Palace, Beach/Ocean/Sea, Backpacking, Rail Trip, Road Trip
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| Page Views: 11,449 | Worldkiwi's VT Home. by worldkiwi - last update: Oct 1, 2007 |
Spring has arrived in New Zealand. If you're heading this way for a holiday, pack warm clothes, a raincoat and shorts and a t-shirt. Spring is incredibly changeable. It can be warm and sunny one day and howling a freezing south-westerly the next! This sort of annoying weather lasts through to right before Christmas as a rule. Don't head this way for sunshine until late January.
I am way behind in updating my travel pages, with a 2006 page and 2007 journeys still to be finished! Hopefully they'll be done before 2007's end!
Happy travels wherever you are! |
| Standing near the Horse Gate, Kunming, China. |
|  | Travel in 2007. Theoretically, now that I am broke (I bought a house at the start of April), I shouldn't be doing any more travel ever! Last year, however, I craftily booked a trip to the UK for July to visit my cousins. A flying visit it was in every way. I flew around the world for just two weeks! Oh well, now that I owe the bank every cent I earn, I can't afford to take many days off work!
In April I was lucky to be able to travel to Japan, Hong Kong, Kunming in China, Thailand and have one day in KL, Malaysia. I was doing a marketing trip for the place I work, which saw me going to Hong Kong for the first time since 1994 and entering China for the first time ever. Actually, there were a couple of other firsts on the trip, like my first visit to Chiang Mai in northern Thailand and my first elephant ride! I managed to keep my weekends mostly free to do some sightseeing and take some digital pictures for my VT pages. At the end of it all I had three days stopover at the end of it all in peaceful Kata, Phuket, Thailand.
There shouldn't be any other travel this year, unfortunately - unless I win lotto! |
| Me in Matsumoto, Japan, April 2006. |
| | Travel in 2006. 2006 was a busy and exciting year for travelling with trips to Japan, my first trip to North America (British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, and California), and a business trip to Christchurch, New Zealand, in September.
At the end of January I had a four day holiday in Northland, based in the Bay of Islands. Though the weather didn't come to the party, I had a whole lot of new experiences (like swimming with dolphins, sand boarding down giant dunes, and getting off the beaten trail in Waipoua forest) in one of my favourite regions of NZ.
At the beginning of April, I had a long weekend in Hawkes Bay, based in Napier. I hadn't visited this region since I was a small kid, so it was like a new experience for me. Hawkes Bay is a great holiday destination and deserves more than a few days! I would thoroughly recommend this "off-the-beaten-trail" part of North Island, NZ to overseas visitors looking for something less commercial and more laid back.
From April 14 to 25, I was in Japan. I stayed in Tokyo for the first time in three trips to Japan and really enjoyed this amazing city. I visited Matsumoto for the first time and was blown away by the stunning castle - Japan's oldest. The trip ended in Kyoto - a city rich in heritage and culture and one that becomes, with each trip to Japan, one of may favourite places.
The highlight of the year was my 3 weeks in North America - my first visit to that continent. Lured there by the chance to walk through the Boeing factory near Seattle and get a personalised tour from my uncle who was stationed there for ten months, how could I, an avid plane-spotter, resist!
I started my trip in beautiful Vancouver and wound my way down to Seattle via Victoria, BC. After a few brilliant days in sparkling Seattle with my aunty and uncle, I picked up a rental car and drove to San Francisco, via the beautiful and friendly Oregon Coast. I fell in love with Oregon and would love to see more of that peaceful state where people reminded me of kiwis in my homeland and the environment was so green and clean. Finally, the city of San Francisco was one big surprise, not turning out to be anything that I expected - maybe it was the time of the year, but it seemed very laid back and relaxed for my first really big American city.
In September I finally made it to Christchurch, here in NZ. It was a business trip, but I got two days of freedom at the end of the conference I went to so I could explore a little. On one of those days I made it out to the picturesque little town of Akaroa on the Banks Peninsula - that is one place you must go if visting Christchurch and the Canterbury region.
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| Venice - the serene republic. |
| | My top ten list. People sometimes ask me where my favourite places are. It's a hard one to answer, because I have enjoyed all the places I've been. Everywhere has at least one characteristic that makes it memorable. However, here is the list of places I would most like to return to and a few reasons why.
1. Venice/Venezia, Italia - the combination of water and the unique built environment of this city creates a magical quality that is quite frankly sublime.
2. Naxos, Greece - tranquility and sunshine surrounded by turquoise waters: does it get any better?
3. Turkey - I didn't have long enough there: a country of the friendliest people.
4. Britain - this country has so much history and beautiful countryside, from Cornwall to Scotland: a lifetime could be spent exploring this interesting isle.
5. Indonesia - an exotic and enthralling archipelago of over 17000 islands dan juga saya dapat berlatih bahasaku... saya cinta bercakap-cakap dengan bahasa.
6. Spain - I love the culture and the language: one of these days I'll learn Spanish. The lifestyle is great too.
7. Portugal - a restful and gracious land for the traveller to explore.
8. Malaysia - Saya cinta Malaysia, bercakap bahasanya dan orang mesra!
9. Aitutaki, Cook Islands - friendly people, bedazzling lagoon and picturesque motu.
10. The Pacific Northwest (British Columbia, Washington, Oregon) - sublime scenery! A truly beautiful and friendly part of the world. |
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 Comments for worldkiwi | | | | |
traveloturc Thu Jan 24, 2008 23:05 UTC
Happy birthday to you from Istanbul/Turkiye...I wish that you realize all your dreams good luck !!!)))) | Etoile2B Thu Jan 24, 2008 18:25 UTC
Happy Birthday from sunny California! | nocogelo Thu Jan 24, 2008 15:55 UTC
have a good one | into-thin-air Thu Jan 24, 2008 15:04 UTC
Happy Birthday Glenn -- I Hope that you gave a Good One :-))) All the Best from Rob in Cumbria |
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