After our night at Abel Tasman, we said goodbye to the seemingly unreal blue water and headed down the west coast. Our goal was to make it to just before Franz Josef Glacier that evening. Along the way, we stopped at the Pancake Rocks, which was interesting rock formations that “look like stacks of pancakes”, but really they just look sorta cool. The most entertaining part of this little adventure was watching this one lady dart around as a photo ninja…
After an overnight at what turned out to be our favorite holiday park, Flat Hills Cafe and Tourist Park, we headed south to Wellington where we would catch the Interislander ferry the next morning. With a day to explore the city, we were all in agreement that Wellington has some good vibes: great street art all around, funky architecture, yummy local beer, and solid restaurants. On the recommendation of Morgan’s friend, we stopped in at Garage Project‘s Cellar Door for…
After a wild night at Hobbiton, we headed over to Waitomo to see the glowworm caves. We booked a tour that was a bit less touristy and went to some different, supposedly more unique caves. We were not disappointed. The first cave had tons of glowworms! Shawn and I have seen them before, but never on this level. We first walked through the cave in total darkness, then we got on a raft and our guide paddled us very quietly…
Equipped with our Jucy Condo campervan, we left Auckland (after an incredible Women’s March) and had a brief stay in Rotorua to soak in the hot springs and hike in the hills before heading to Hobbiton. Most of the bigger thermal features cost money to see, so we stuck to the ones at our holiday park and those we could see from afar. Here are a few highlights, before diving into the Hobbity stuff. So Hobbiton. Sure, it’s man-made, touristy,…
This is Morgan, Amanda’s sister, guest posting on the blog. My biggest regret going into this trip was missing the Women’s March in Washington. I was supposed to be there, with my friend Gina, but when the opportunity arose to come to New Zealand I couldn’t say no. Luckily, a sister march was happening in Auckland while we were there, so we were able to join in. Due to the date line, Auckland’s march was the very first women’s march…
After our time at Lake St. Clair, we headed south towards Mt. Field National Park. Our first afternoon, we drove out to this bizarre area in Western Tasmania to a town called Strathgordon. We hadn’t had much wifi and hadn’t done much research, so we thought it would just be beautiful and cool. Turns out, there isn’t really much out there. Back in the 60s, a dam was built, which turned the once-small Lake Pedder into a giant lake. The…
After 3 weeks of housesitting in our beautiful Melbourne home, we said goodbye to the kitties, extra space, functional kitchen, laundry (you get the idea), and hopped on a quick flight to Tasmania. Before I go any further… Seriously! Come to Tasmania. It is awesome. When we arrived, we picked up a rental car in Launceston and headed west to Cradle Mountain-Lake St. Clair National Park. It took mere minutes once we got up the mountain before spotting some amazing wildlife…
Sorry for the delay, people. There has been a serious lack of sufficient wifi to post, and I actually wrote this post on dodgy wifi nearly two weeks ago and wasn’t able to post until now. My birthday was in early January and Shawn decided we were going to Yarra Valley to celebrate. Yarra Valley is wine country just outside of Melbourne. I have to be honest here – the place looks just like California. But it was so beautiful and felt…
We recently rented a car to drive the Great Ocean Road, one of Australia’s most famous attractions (think epic California coastline, but with koalas and kangaroos). I honestly don’t know a ton about what there’s to see in Australia, but my companion and lovely wife Amanda has pretty much done it all here and did not lead us astray. There’s a ton to do and see along the 150 mile stretch (so much you could spend a week or more),…
I recently wrote up and emailed some instructions to one of Morgan’s (my new sister-in-law) friends on how to build one’s own chuppah. Since they were so lengthy, I thought I’d make the effort worthwhile by spreading it to the interwebs. The photos tell most of the story, but if you’re hung up on a decision, the step-by-step may help you. Buy birch poles. You can use whatever material you like for this, of course, not just birch. But birch is…