Our trek to the Tongariro Crossing on New Zealand’s North Island was the trek that almost wasn’t. Winds were fierce, rains continued to pour down and visibility only seemed to get worse right up to the day before we were set to hike.
As night fell, winds began to subside and the rain slowed, but it still didn’t look good. We prepared ourselves for the worst.
The next morning, however, a shift. Timed for our late start, winds died further, clouds burned off and blue skies emerged. This was our Tongariro Crossing. Open up the panorama to full screen to see what we found: the Emerald Lakes, the Red Crater and hints of Mordor. Continue Reading »
Filed Under: New Zealand, Panorama by: Daniel Noll and Audrey Scott
11 Comments | 29 April 2013
Imagine going to one of the wettest places on earth, only to be greeted with sunshine. This was our experience in Doubtful Sound on the very southwest tip of New Zealand’s South Island. Blue skies in the land of socked-in clouds and precipitation — lucky, we were. Continue Reading »
Filed Under: New Zealand, Panorama by: Daniel Noll and Audrey Scott
10 Comments | 19 April 2013
Confession time. This week’s panorama is really for us. We’ve been enduring the tail end of a long winter in Berlin. (Yes, it’s still going!). Gazing at beach scenes like this one offers a respite, a way to escape to New Zealand for a few moments to forget the lingering snow on the ground outside. We, too, travel vicariously — even back to the places we’ve already visited.
Even if you’re not sitting in cold and snow this week, we hope you’ll still enjoy one of our favorite picnic lunch spots: a white sand beach in the beauty that is New Zealand’s Abel Tasman National Park.
Open up the panorama to full screen and take a virtual stroll around Stillwell Beach. Continue Reading »
Filed Under: New Zealand, Panorama by: Daniel Noll and Audrey Scott
11 Comments | 3 April 2013
Perspective. There are times to sit and relax on a white sand beach and enjoy the proximity of the crashing waves. And then there are times to climb up to get up above it all.
Waewaetorea Island is one of those times to take the climb. From the top you get a 360-degree view of around 35 islands that make up the Bay of Islands in the North Island.
Open the panorama up to full screen. Would you take the climb? Continue Reading »
Filed Under: New Zealand, Panorama by: Audrey Scott
11 Comments | 19 February 2013
“If you look up, at just the right time, you’ll see a peacock on the ceiling,” our guide, Javad, explained as he walked us under the gilded and tiled dome of Sheikh Lotf Allah Mosque in Isfahan, Iran.
We craned our necks, searching for just the right angle. With the aid of sunlight passing through a nearby window, an image of a peacock — previously unseen, now tail shimmering — was revealed to us brush strokes. Intermittent cries of “Oh!” indicated when everyone in the room “got it.” Continue Reading »
Filed Under: Iran, Middle East, Panorama by: Daniel Noll and Audrey Scott
13 Comments | 28 January 2013
In a typical European medieval town, its castle lay at its heart. In Edinburgh, however, its castle is its head — the head of a fish, to be more precise. The Royal Mile, the main thoroughfare of Edinburgh that spills from the castle forms a sort of spine of the fish to which many closes (alleys) are connected.
And although Edinburgh has evolved over the centuries, much of the Old Town looks like one imagines it might have centuries ago, like something you might have even seen in Harry Potter. Continue Reading »
Filed Under: Panorama, Scotland by: Daniel Noll and Audrey Scott
10 Comments | 6 January 2013
A long horizon, inky waters and waning light. What is it about all this that delivers a sense of peace and perspective, of one’s small place in this world? The rhythm of the waves serves as a sort of meditative mantra, keeping petty stresses and worries in their place, at bay.
We recently arrived at this spot on Nicaragua’s Pacific Coast, and ended our first day at Morgan’s Rock gazing out over this. Open up the panorama below to full screen to enjoy a bit of this experience at home. Continue Reading »
Filed Under: Nicaragua, Panorama by: Daniel Noll and Audrey Scott
18 Comments | 2 December 2012
Dawn breaks in a village above holy Lake Khecheopalri in Sikkim, a semi-autonomous state of northeast India tucked into the Himalayas. In the early morning, children stumble half asleep through the village to the Buddhist monastery school as the sun rises over the nearby mountains. Our reason for rising early on the morning this photo was taken: to grab a glimpse of the elusive peak of Mount Kangchenjunga, the world’s third highest. Continue Reading »
Filed Under: India, Panorama by: Daniel Noll and Audrey Scott
8 Comments | 16 November 2012
Almost exactly one year ago, we visited the island of Crete. The “crisis” was in full tilt, demonstrations were plenty in Athens and around Greece, and we were just into the shoulder season (mid-October). It seemed like we had much of the island to ourselves, including lonely little Arkadi Monastery perched on a hill in Crete’s Amari Valley.
The monastery facade you see in the panorama below dates back to the 16th century. Look closely, though, and you’ll see that it is strewn with bullet holes from a 150 years ago, a symbol of Cretan resistance and independence. Continue Reading »
Filed Under: Europe, Greece, Panorama by: Daniel Noll and Audrey Scott
7 Comments | 17 October 2012
Up until our recent travels into the heart of port wine country, and despite countless glasses of the stuff under my belt, I was still tempted to consider port as a heavy drink that was quaffed by older British men with a cigar after a pot roast dinner.
Then we traveled deep into the Douro Valley in northern Portugal, the epicenter of port wine. And there, things opened up to me. Continue Reading »
Filed Under: Panorama, Portugal, Wine by: Audrey Scott
12 Comments | 3 October 2012
