kangaroo sightings

Manukau heads lighthouse was easier to get to than Puoto Point. :) ANZAC day landed on a Wednesday this year. It made Tuesday feel like Friday (which was nice). But then it made Thursday feel like a second Monday in the week (not so nice). Maybe it will make Friday feel like double plus Friday? We shall see tomorrow. For ANZAC day, I went to the lighthouse at Manukau Heads, followed by some beach lounging time and a short walk at Awhitu Regional Park. It was another gorgeous day! My (real) phone is near, so pardon the quality of the photos just a little bit longer. I cannot tell if that is graffiti in the side of the wall or bird houses? Or both? I was promised an island, but the tide was too far out. Picture frame! And some dark artwork in the lighthouse. 

Logging in to post photos from today, I found a draft post from who knows when of things I wanted to do whilst living in Australasia. From that list, it appears I have three more to go: scuba dive Great Barrier, visit Fiji, and venture into the Australian outback. Looks like I have some planning to do! This was a local weekend for me with Brendan in the US. Saturday was mountain biking at Woodhill. Sorry, no photos to post as I was too close to puking to take in the scenery. I had a ball, but could use some fitness back. Crazy how much Woodhill has grown since we were last here. A couple of hours of riding was washed down with a steak pie because I earned it? Sunday was a walk at Shakespeare Regional Park complete with pukekos, sheep, cows, kite surfers, and a toast to someone who will be dearly missed.

Fantastic long weekend in the Kaipara district. We stayed just outside of Paparoa in a fabulous airbnb (Let us know if you'd like a recommendation of where to stay in this area) with trips out to Taiharuru, Pataua, and Pouto. From Pouto, we attempted to make it to the historic lighthouse. Turns out it was a bit further and bit more strenuous hike than we had anticipated. With more research though, we are ready to tackle it next time! It is beautiful - you should google it.  Here are some photos from our drive, our airbnb, B sleeping in a tree, and from sunset dinner on the beach back in Auckland. 

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...