Blog | Books And Travel

13 Incredible Places To Visit In New Zealand

Famous for natural beauty, wildlife, and adventure, New Zealand is a long way to travel, but well worth the effort to cross the oceans.

I arrived in New Zealand with my backpack in 2000 and ended up staying for seven years. Here are some of my favorite places for a wonderful trip and some reading recommendations while you enjoy your stay.

(1) Swim with marine mammals in Kaikoura

The depths of the Hikurangi Trench are just offshore at Kaikoura and attract an abundance of sea-life to the area. You can go whale-watching, swim with wild dolphins, kayak with the seals, or just enjoy kai moana (seafood) while gazing out across the ocean. A magical place.

Dolphins in Kaikoura, New Zealand. Photo by Pablo Heimplatz on Unsplash

Memento Mori. How Travel Can Help Us Deal With Death And Grief With Dr Karen Wyatt

Dark Travel

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Sometimes we need to get away in order to heal, to take ourselves out of the routine and recognize how short life is, and how precious.

In this episode, Dr Karen Wyatt explains how travel helped her face grief and embrace living well in the face of death.

Dr Karen Wyatt is a hospice physician and best-selling author of books about death, loss, and grief. She’s the host of the End-of-Life University podcast and an inspirational speaker who teaches how to live a life that really matters, by embracing our mortality. Today, we’re talking about how travel, in particular, can help with grief and reflection on our mortality.

Show notes

The personal loss that inspired Karen’s grief travels to Italy, Spain and France
How traveling can help you realize that you are not alone in grief
Why Herculaneum in Italy is such a powerful place
Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris
The difference between cemeteries and death culture in Europe vs the USA
Depictions of death in places of faith, and the European tradition of ossuaries and displaying bones publicly
Why memento mori and being aware of the shortness of life helps us to live more joyfully
Book recommendations for grief travel

You can find Karen at www.karenwyattmd.com and her podcast at www.eoluniversity.com, and on Instagram @kwyattmd

11 Unusual Things To See In Budapest

Unusual Places

From ancient Celtic origins through to pillaging by the Mongols and on to become the co-capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Budapest has a fascinating and complex history astride the River Danube.

Take a walk across the Széchenyi Chain Bridge for some of the best views along the river and up to the castle, and then take a look at the more unusual things to see in Budapest.

1. St. Stephen’s Basilica

The basilica is worth visiting for its grand facade and peaceful nave, but the real surprise is in the Chapel of the Holy Right. Yes, it really is a thousand-year-old mummified hand in a golden box.

Holy Right Hand of St Stephen, Budapest, Hungary. Photo by Jo Frances Penn — Holy Right Hand of St Stephen, Budapest, Hungary. Photo by J.F.Penn

12 Of The World’s Most Unusual Museums

Unusual Places

When you think of museums, you might think of the majesty of the British Museum in London or the grand halls of the Met in New York.

But if you only focus on the famous names, you might miss out on the smaller, more unusual places.

I’ve collected together 12 of the strangest museums around the world that are all worth a visit. You’ll encounter mummies, witchcraft, shrunken heads, and souls on the way through Purgatory.

Choose carefully, and visit with an open mind. Who knows what new ideas or fascinations will emerge for you?

1. Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, England

The Pitt Rivers Museum is a place close to my heart as the public front of the ARKANE Institute in my thrillers. The collection is also perhaps one of the weirdest museums in the UK. General Pitt Rivers founded the museum in 1884, and there are now over half a million objects.

By Geni - Photo by user:geni, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=43537596 — Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford. Photo by Geni, Wikimedia CC BY-SA 4.0

Scuba Diving: The Wonder Of Traveling Beneath The Waves With J.F.Penn

Travel Memoir

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Travel is about curiosity, the desire to discover new places and experience the extraordinary. It is often about pushing boundaries, extending our comfort zone to the point of challenge and beyond in the hope of discovering something new about ourselves and the world.

In today’s episode, I’m talking about scuba diving and the wonder of traveling beneath the waves and even if you’re not a diver yourself, I hope you find it interesting.

Jo Frances Penn scuba diving. Photo by J.F.Penn

Dreaming Spires: Historical And Unusual Sites Of Oxford, England

Unusual Places

Oxford holds a special place in my heart. I read Theology at Mansfield College 1994 – 1997, so I spent formative years cycling around the streets, spending my student loan on books from Blackwells, rowing on the river, and studying in the Radcliffe Camera library.

I first dreamed of Oxford after reading Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure back in my teens, and the experience of living in the city of dreaming spires has certainly shaped my life … and my fiction!

Oxford is a key location in the ARKANE series. Home to Morgan Sierra, it provides a point of stability in her hectic life of international travel and defeating the bad guys!

Hertford bridge best known as the Bridge of Sighs, Oxford, England. Photo licensed from BigStockPhoto

Let’s take a walk around some of the historical and unusual aspects of Oxford.