Loosening up with lomi lomi
There are few better ways to begin or end an overseas trip than with a massage. And in Hawaii, I managed to do both. The first…
Silly not to shop
I’m not really much of a shopper. And frankly, I get a bit irritated by the assumption that all women like to shop. I seldom shop…
In the pink at the Royal Hawaiian
I’m in the pink. Literally. Wrapped in a soft cotton candy-striped bathrobe, sitting on a pink-flowered chair in a hotel room with a feature wall of…
A tourist in my own town
Can a Canadian tell me anything I don’t already know about the Australian city I’ve called home for nearly 20 years? The answer is yes…if he’s…
The barmaid who bought the pub
Who remembers those classic commercials in which Remington shavers were spruiked by Victor Kiam, the man who famously “loved them so much I bought the company”?…
A taste of Indonesia
The contents of a beautiful wooden bowl on the table of my hotel room in the Indonesian city of Yogyakarta had me intrigued. What are those…
Responsible tourism: making a difference
Today is World Responsible Tourism Day. To mark the occasion, here is a story I wrote last year after travelling in Laos. This story, of which…
More than a souvenir
Audience participation is not really my thing. So it was that when a strange musical instrument was thrust into my hand on a beach in Indonesia…
Sunday lunch at the Apollonian
The smell of roasting lamb is always enough to get this Kiwi girl’s mouth watering. I love a good Sunday roast at any time (lamb, pork,…
The pub that time forgot
Swing through the saloon doors at the Imperial Hotel in the tiny Queensland town of Ravenswood and be prepared for a shock. It’s all carved cedar,…
A Glass Half Full 