kangaroo sightings

The kayaking on days 1 through 7 of this trip is well documented in previous posts. I had a few notes in draft for the remainder of the trip that I am pulling together now for memories sake. Days 7 to 10:  Fat Tui burgers - Best. Burger. Ever. Not sure if it was indeed that good or it was that good after 7 days of backpacking food. Mind you, we ate like kings for a backpacking trip. But, this burger still has iconic status in my memory. The question now is can I ever go back, or would that ruin the original experience? Tinline Bay - B and I did some more kayaking in the park after the kayaking trip. This consisted mostly of lounging on the beach in the hammock.  boat vs. bus - We had booked a boat from the park to Nelson. It was swapped with a bus due to weather. Functional, but not as pretty.  NYE - We saw the singular firework in Nelson. It was pretty.  Days 11 to 14: Solo drive - I was solo from this point in the trip due to circumstances. I continue...

Where I last left off blogging, I was in a countdown of our final weeks living in New Zealand (so we thought). I never got around to writing or posting countdown weekends #4 (Wellington), #3 (Waiheke), #2 (Dunedin), and #1 (Easter 2013). (From memory, they were all fantastic!) Worse than that though, I never posted anything between Easter 2013 and the most recent Easter 2018. Our journey took us to Seattle for the years in between. Our time there was no less worthy of a blog, but work seemed to take control and we lost some of the life balance that allows for things such as blogging. Easter 2018 just passed and we are back in the land of the long white cloud. Not for a blog of course, but in search of the lifestyle that accompanies it (in short). Welcome back!

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...

With the clock now ticking we are squeezing the most out of our remaining time in New Zealand. With 8 weekends to go, we spent this one surfing in Raglan. After a lazy Saturday morning, we made our way south for an arvo surfing lesson in Manu Bay. The weather was good (not great as there was a little bit of a chill in the air). Luckily our pre-paid lesson (thanks, GrabOne) included wetsuit hire though making us comfy as in the water. We both had a successful lesson and each managed to stand up a handful of times. Brendan being the more adventurous of us actually managed to stand up while catching a wave whereas by the time I made it to the standing position the wave was mostly past me leaving me to surf the back of the whitewater.   It definitely went better than my last surfing lesson though and made me excited for the next time I get a chance to try. The only complaint was that the surfing company was a bit over-zealous in their bookings leaving a third of us without boards! Br...

The rest of the week kayaking was not as adrenaline pumping as the first day (with one exception) but it was incredible. We had crystal clear water, pristine beaches, close encounters with wildlife, and very few people until the last day. We got up early everyday to take advantage of the calmer conditions on the water, but then we spent the afternoon alternating between swimming and napping, so no complaints from me. Our short paddle days meant we always got the best campsites, sometimes arriving before the previous night's occupants had even left! And our extra time with the kayaks meant we were never rushed. We could explore as little or as much as we wanted, watching out for the tides of course. One such exploration was into a tidal inlet where we were told stingrays hung out. I think we looked for about an hour (B and I both fell asleep drifting in our boat I think), but didn't see any. Eventually, we gave up and went to set up camp. I decided to have a go with the snorke...