This is a story about living in someone else’s shadow. It’s also the beginning of our answer to the question: New Zealand, North Island or South Island?
Imagine a geeky younger boy who grows up in the shadow of his brother, the all-star. The big brother gets all the attention, all the fame. But it’s the younger brother with whom you develop a special relationship, who was allowed to surprise you because you spent some time with him.
The New Zealand advice mantra of choice: “Get amongst it!”
This is our relationship with New Zealand’s North Island. It lives in the travel shadow of its South Island brother. Sure, the South Island is spectacular (yes, we’ll get to that), but it’s on the North Island that our New Zealand love affair began.
While most may steer you directly to the South Island when asked about New Zealand travel, we take a different approach. Visit both. Really. You can thank us later. Continue Reading »
Filed Under: New Zealand, Pacific, Travel by: Daniel Noll and Audrey Scott
25 Comments | 28 March 2013
One minute, you’re in the center of the town of Franz Josef, a cafe on one side of you, a pizzeria on the other. Then, within minutes, you are transported to another world. Your helicopter pops up into the air, through jagged mountain crags, just before dropping you into the heart of a glacier, an otherworldly ice field of turquoise blues and glowing whites.
This was Franz Josef Glacier. Continue Reading »
Filed Under: New Zealand, Panorama, Travel by: Audrey Scott
16 Comments | 7 March 2013
I am starting to wonder about you guys. every time you celebrate your ‘love’ (V-day, anniversary) you jump off something very high. Please explain.
— A good friend responds to our Valentine’s Day bungy jump, capturing a little problem we seem to have.
So there we were in New Zealand, Valentine’s Day approaching. We find ourselves in Queenstown, the so-called adventure capital of the world where just about any adrenaline-pumping, blood-draining exercise can be found. So we think: What sort of shared experience, that we haven’t done before, can we do together to celebrate Valentine’s Day?
Continue Reading »
Filed Under: New Zealand, Pacific, Travel by: Daniel Noll and Audrey Scott
26 Comments | 15 February 2013
What is marriage, if not a leap of faith?
Fourteen years ago, on or around our second date, Audrey and I went skydiving together. It was, as you might imagine, both terrifying and fantastic. And as much as you also might also imagine that it wiped away my fear of heights, it did not. Perhaps it chiseled away at that wall, but it certainly didn’t tear it down. I still swoon thinking about that airplane canopy above 16,000 feet. I still get wobbly above 10 stories.
So here we are 14 years later in Berlin, celebrating our 11th wedding anniversary. What better way to recognize the occasion than to jump (base fly) from the top of a 37-story building?
Continue Reading »
Filed Under: Europe, Germany, Travel, Videos by: Daniel Noll
30 Comments | 7 October 2011
Barely recovering from self-inflicted death march from Kazakh mountains. Copter airlift looked likely. Rappelling down waterfall = escape.
– Our Twitter update from Almaty, Kazakhstan on 3 September 2007
My, how things can go wrong. Continue Reading »
- Big Almaty Lake and Kosmostancia: The Hike and The Observatory
- How Kazakhstan Nearly Killed Us
Filed Under: Central Asia, Kazakhstan, Travel by: Daniel Noll and Audrey Scott
No Comments | 11 December 2007
