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 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…
We landed on Tokyo on Thursday afternoon. After customs and the Narita Express into Tokyo, we got to our Airbnb and then went out to find dinner. OMG. We went to this place called Fuunji Ramen. They have tsukemen. HOW HAVE I NEVER HAD THIS BEFORE?! We were so excited and hungry that we forgot to take pictures. The head chef is this J-Rock dude who swings the noodles around. It’s a tiny hole in the wall and you order…
Well, here we are. Seated at Seatac, waiting to board our plane to Tokyo. It’s a bit surreal, and we keep saying to ourselves, “what the HELL are we doing?!” But we’re also excited for this adventure to finally begin. The past few days have been a crazy whirlwind of seeing friends and family, packing, and preparing the house for guests. Our belongings have all been put in storage, the house cleaned and pretty bare for guests, and loose ends…
We’re nine days out! At this point most things are lined up, with the exception of a few last-minute details that we really can’t take care of until this coming weekend. I’ve mostly figured out everything I’m bringing, though Shawn is still working out a few details. Shoes have been the hardest decision because we plan to do a fair amount of hiking and are traveling through many different seasons. I plan to post a packing update once we’ve narrowed…
Our outbound flight is booked! We are heading to Japan first, and will continue our way west from there. Shamanda RTW is about to become a real thing! I’m feeling pretty excited right now, but at the same time, there are a lot of stresses coming from making sure I have everything I need, plus packing up our house and belongings. We’re going to put our house on Airbnb, so I’ve been spending my time trying to line everything up…