In Dublin’s Fair City … .. where the construction cranes are so pretty. The Irish republic is having a fair economic boom right now, with economic growth on a par with that of China. Difference is that Irish GDP per capita puts it amongst the richest seven countries in the world (as is Norway) – […]

In Dublin now, not long until our return to NZ, having spent 2018 so far pretty much wandering the globe. Hopefully glimpses of summer are starting to appear there so our quest to have a retirement of continuous summers gets off to a good start. We’re not back abroad until we get back on the […]

Built in 1897 as his summer residence on his father’s shooting estate by the owner of one of Lancashire’s satanic textile mills, this example of grotesque late Victorian excess is positioned similarly to Kinloch, Lake Taupo – just off the beach at the head of a sweeping bay. But that’s where the similarity ends. Kinloch […]

Orkney – Nowadays the Shetland’s poorer cousin This archipelago of 70 islands, to the southwest of the Shetlands made up 5/6th of Margaret of Denmark’s dowry – largely because its fertile soils supported more farming than its northern cousin. Today that relative valuation would not hold up, thanks to the discovery of North sea oil […]

So now we’re on the Shetland Isles, ironically these are closer to Norway than they are to Scotland – and we certainly passed a surfeit of oil rigs as we sailed across from Bergen – the Norwegian footprint is quite extensive. Of course that’s been the case for far longer than the discovery of North […]

Goodbye Norway, it’s been a blast Our six weeks touring Norway and Svalbard by bicycle and boat is over. As we head out of Bergen en route for the Shetland Islands, we can reflect on a society that has to be one of the more idyllic on earth; no huge population pressure, an abundance of […]

Deep in the Norwegian fjords now as we wind down our six week sojourn swanning around the Scandinavian north and before we set off for the Shetlands. The weather we’ve had up here has been phenomenal, like mid-summer in NZ. But that’s now changed and we’re back to a traditional Scandinavian summer – lots of […]

Time to head back to the mainland soon but one more opportunity to taste some more of Svalbard’s environment and historical locations on our return south from the ice. The capital of Longyearbyen only hosts 2,000 residents, there are more polar bears on Svalbard in winter especially. Over December and January it is in 24 […]

We’re now up at almost 83 degrees north, deep into the pack ice and well north of Svalbard. It’s the home of seals, walrus, polar bears and the birds that we’ve been immersed in for a few days now. As opposed to the last occasions we’ve been anywhere near this far north, the polar bear […]

It’s the height of summer so there’s no pack ice near Svalbard, we will have to sail on beyond 82 degrees north to locate it this year. But the archipelago has it’s own charm anyway with its ice cap providing an abundance of glaciers that tumble down towards the sea. It’s capital Longyearbyen, provides the […]