kangaroo sightings

I will be forever grateful to New Zealand for making me fall back in love with mountain biking. I had let that hobby fall off in Australia. Perhaps the trails did not interest me, perhaps there was too much else going on, I am not actually sure, but in New Zealand.... c'est magnifique! It also might help that I bought myself a fun new toy for Christmas 2011 - Specialized Epic 29er. Funnest. Bike. Ever. At least that I have ever ridden. It suits my riding style perfectly and has massively improved my confidence on the descents letting me just find that flow on the trail and enjoy it. And Rotorua has some of the best flowing trails ever. So does Taupo, so we hit them both up for one last hoorah this weekend. We rode as much as two out of shape desk-drivers could ride in a weekend. Much fun was had by all. My only regret is that we did not ride these trails more. But we did so much else and sadly there are only so many weekends.... If anyone wants to pay me to not work though so tha

B and I headed out to the very tip of the Coromandel peninsula this weekend. Bit of a long drive for a weekend, but it was a beautiful day and an incredibly scenic road, so well worth it. Saturday morning, we packed some food, the hammock, the camp gear and hit the road. We made it to the tip of the Coromandel by the middle of the arvo. Enjoyed a picnic, found a camp spot, went for a swim, and then it was down to serious business.... We are on a mission to clean out our cabinets over the next few weeks. Target for this weekend: bottle of tequila. We had a lovely afternoon drinking campsite margaritas on the beach. Mission accomplished. Before we knew it we were watching the sun set and hadn't yet bothered to cook dinner or set up our tent. Thanks for the full moon though, neither of those were a drama. Another beautiful spot in New Zealand that we will definitely miss... We took the even longer way home stopping off at the same lookout where just 2 years ago we broke the key of

As we drove north out of Auckland to start our weekend, we realized that we had only ever been north 2 times before. We have done heaps of road trips, but most of those had focused south of Auckland. We also realized that each of these previous trips, we had tried to do exactly what we were setting out to do this weekend, the Cream Trip. It is an all-day cruise of the Bay of Islands that traces the route of the old cream collection and mail distribution boat. The first two attempts we were foiled by terrible weather, and since Brendan was sick for one of those, it is a good thing that we did not pre-book. This time though, determined to do it, we bought tickets a few months in advance. Weather be damned, we were going cruising! Not caring to do anything the easy way, we opted for an 11-hour road trip on Saturday (to cover the 4-hour distance between Auckland the Bay of Islands). Why so long, you ask? Kauri trees. Big ones. We saw the ‘lord of the forest’ measuring almost 14m in circ