A week before this comes out, X-Men Origins: Wolverine starts playing.  And does that look all sorts of exciting and full of Hugh Jackman?  Why yes!  Yes it does!...

I think it's all sorts of funny that the national animal of Canada is a beaver.  Really?  A beaver?  Not say, a moose, or a polar bear*?  And that their dollar coins are the loonie and toonie. I have a friend, Jenn, who lives in Canada.  We met in Nelson when we wor...

  isn't this such a welcoming sight?  the mall of america, taken from the parking lot of ikea!  hooray!  consumerism at it's best!  it was in a way a bit welcoming: it meant that the over 20 hours of flying/sitting in airports was over.  that is probably o...

dunedin has hills, and i knew this, but i suppose i didn't quite realize how big the hills here could be.  and how fun it would be living at the top of one.  nice view, but good thing there's free laundry where i'm staying.  no matter how cold it is, i'm sure by the time i get up to w...

i made it!  i am in australia!  another stamp in my passport!  i flew in to sydney on tuesday via auckland, my favorite city (ugh).  it was funny, as fiona was dropping me off at the nelson airport she told me that it's the fourth busiest in new zealand (the three busier ...

so, as i said, the owners are gone this weekend and i am managing the backpacker's.  it's been fairly event-free, which is kind of nice.  i took a little walk yesterday to the queen's gardens, and then last night i had tea with my friend tha (from work) and played a couple of games of real...

these pictures don't quite do it justice. a couple of weeks ago, leah and i received vouchers to blow our own glass baubles at a local glassworks and design studio.  we went on monday, and yesterday i was able to go pick them up.  they turned out really cool!  okay, so mine may not be...

the red snapper.  it turned out really well, and even i, the non-seafood person, enjoyed it.  turns out it was already gutted (thank goodness, because i didn't know what i would do with them) so i just had to chop the head off.  which is hard, because backpackers tend to have very dul...

fiona and the kids are gone, and so is paul, so leah and i are running this joint for a little bit.  and we're getting to check our email for free.  so i bought this zipper pull to go on my new purple hoodie.  it wasn't really an impulse purchase unless you look at it as being not the...

since i've been back in rotorua, leah and i have spent a few days doing very little at all (including hours spent lying on beaches in the sun) and have done a few touristy things as well.  the most looked-forward too one by me was the hangi .  a hangi is a way of cooking food that uses the...