Ron Laughlin is TravelPod’s Local Expert for New Zealand. He’s been campervanning all around the island and he’s also got a taste for great coffee. So if whether you’re into lattes or espresso, skiing down the mountains or sunning on the beach, Ron is your go-to guy for any information about New Zealand.
Why did you become a Local Expert?
I am very dedicated to letting travelers know about New Zealand properly.
What’s are the best and worst things about living in New Zealand?
The best: I am a nature freak and a photographer. Never been anywhere else that compares to New Zealand in such a small place.
Worst…….can’t think of anything?
What are the top five or 10 things for travelers to do in your area? Tough question, here are the answers not necessarily in order.
1. Try the wines, known internationally for the sauvignon blanc, chardonnay
2. Be sure to eat the local foods – greenlip mussels, Bluff oysters, Golden Bay scallops, venison, lamb; not to mention all the fresh fruit and veggie shops along the roads
3. Visit the geothermal world of Rotorua
4. Go boating/fishing in the Marlborough Sounds
5. Go to the Able Tasman Park and Golden Bay
6. Climb a glacier or two
7. Hike (tramp) any of hundreds of amazing trails
8. Kayak, white water raft
9. Go to Kaikoura and say hello to the whales, dolphins, albatross
10. Visit the fjords and stay overnight in a boat
What are some of your best and worst travel experiences?
My best experience is having come to New Zealand (and never left)
My worst experience was when my sailboat caught fire and burned up in the middle
of the ocean and I spent 6 days in a lifer raft in full storn before being rescued.
Here’s the story I wrote – http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/ronl/sailboat.html.
What is your proudest accomplishment?
The Book I wrote and the TV show I wrote -http://www.geocities.com/americankiwi2003/
Where are you planning on traveling in the future?
Wherever I can but mostly here in New Zealand daily in my bus/home
What do you do with most of your time?
Help people with their New Zealand itineraries so they will have the holiday of their lifetime
What’s a typical day like for you?
Enjoy the world outside my bus window as I have breakfast, fire up the bus and search for
something or somewhere I can enjoy experiencing, write about and photograph
Tags: Able Tasman Park, camper, campervan, Golden Bay, Kaikoura, Marlborough Sounds, New Zealand, Ron Laughlin, Rotorua, South Island New Zealand
August 11, 2008 at 4:54 pm |
Ron,
Until you learn how to spell “Abel Tasman”, I can’t regard you as an expert on New Zealand. Remember that such a mistake can destroy users’ ability to dig deeper on the web, because they won’t get a “match”.
August 22, 2008 at 8:25 am |
How do you get to stay there ? Do they need any one that can teach pottery or make pottery?