Just finished a road trip around North Canterbury in the South Island of New Zealand, starting in Christchurch, taking in Hanmer Springs and Kaikoura and finishing back in Christchurch. It’s a popular circuit called the Alpine Triangle.

We made it a three-day long weekend jaunt, but I would suggest you make it at least four days, even better five.

There are a few – very few – advantages to the destruction wrought upon the tourism industry by the Covid-19 pandemic. One is a dramatic reduction in rental vehicle charges as rental companies, ravaged by the absence of overseas visitors, desperately try to get a bit of cash trickling into the till.

Result: Through Ace Rentals we got a perfectly adequate Nissan Tiida for $45 for the three days. That’s not per day.  That was the total cost.

Ace Rentals, these days owned by Hertz, has been in the rental business … Read more

Take a break from the rigours of the road when you are enjoying your Great British Road Trip.

Catch a canal boat.

Having nearly fallen into irrecoverable decay, the canals of Britain are enjoying a renaissance, thanks mostly to the indomitable efforts of volunteers who repair, rebuild and resurrect these great industrial and commercial highways.

So now you, dear traveller, can enjoy one of life’s quieter pleasures.

There’s something almost unworldly in this insanely fast-moving world about toddling along at walking pace through the beautiful British countryside aboard a narrow boat. It has been described as “the fastest way to slow down”. How true.

The British canal system was first established in the 18th century as a way of hauling freight around the country. For the owners, crews and families of the canal boats it was a hard and even dangerous life. The advent of railways, roads and trucks … Read more

How would you like to watch the sun rise at Stonehenge on the day of the summer solstice?  No problem.  We can do this.

Usually that would involve being there with over 20,000 of your closest pagan friends. Not this strange year. The event will be eerily quiet yet millions of people will be watching it.

For the first time ever, English Heritage, the organisation that manages the site, will livestream the rising of the sun on the Northern Hemisphere’s longest day but there will be no-one, other than production crew, at the site itself.

Somehow that seems really weird. Here’s this 5000 year-old monument- there’s still no clear and certain understanding of its purpose – being seen on digital devices right around the world.

I wonder what the original builders would make of that.

We are always learning about the monument

Our understanding of the culture that built the … Read more

https://roadtripdreamer.com/622-2/

What is it about train travel that is so alluring? Is it just a harking back to simpler days? Is it just another manifestation of the retro thing?

Whatever.

I hadn’t been on a train in donkey’s years, but having done the Ghan last year I now found myself sitting in one of the 1^st class cabins on the Bangkok-Chiang Mai overnight train.

Ok, it sounds a bit poncey to be in 1^st class.  I sure as hell can’t afford it on an aeroplane, but at my great age I really can’t see me doing the all-in-together-in-one-big-happy-party of a second class carriage.

Besides, the trip cost me 2430 Thai baht to have a compartment all to myself. That’s about $US75.  Why would you not, especially given that it avoids a night‘s accommodation?

So it is that I’m sitting in a well-appointed little room as we rattle and sway … Read more

Even as life begins to acquire a patina of normality, as we are let loose from the limitations of lock-down, it will be a long time yet before we can start travelling as freely as we once did, but we can still dream about it and more importantly prepare for it.

One of the items higher up on my bucket list is to visit the great art museums of the world.   In Amsterdam The Van Gogh Museum and The Rijksmuseum (The Milkmaid, pictured, is one of the many great works there), the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg.  The Musee d’Orsay in Paris.  Been there once but could easily spend at least a whole day there again. Same with the National Gallery in London. Been there, done that  . . . would do it again anytime. And at least a dozen more spread across America and Europe.

There’s just one … Read more