This building in Rotorua, New Zealand was built as a bath house where one could “take the cure”. Now the building is the Rotorua Museum. It was for many years both a ...

Chris, the Amateur Traveler himself, talks about a recent trip to New Zealand’s North Island where he went to the Waitangi Treaty Grounds and took a dolphin watching cruise up by the ...

June’s photo contest on the Amateur Traveler had the theme humor. Aglaée Jacob won the  contest on the with this photo: Aglaée says: I was on my way to Merzouga from Marrakesh, ...

Mount Ngauruhoe is an active volcano in New Zealand in the Tongariro National Park (the world’s 4th oldest national park and a UNESCO World Heritage Site). Mount Ngauruhoe erupted 45 times in ...

Boston is a great city to visit, whether its for a vacation or for one of the myriad conferences and conventions that take place here. But even though I am a big ...

One of the highlights of my trip to New Zealand was blackwater rafting in the Waitomo Caves. Blackwater rafting is basically spelunking with an inner  tube to ride the underground river. The ...

While I was in the Bay of Islands I took a cruise to the “Hole in the Rock” with Dolphin Discoveries. They see dolphins on 96% of their cruises and this one ...

These two carvings come from the Maori meeting house at the Waitangi Treaty Grounds in New Zealand near the Bay of Islands. At this spot the British and Maori signed the treaty ...

This young lady is not building a sandcastle but instead is creating a spa. At Hot Water Beach on the Coromandel Peninsula near Hehei, New Zealand there is a geothermal hot spot ...

This shot of the Auckland skyline is from across the bay near Stanley Bay. I have not really spent any time in Auckland yet on this trip but am heading back that ...