On Monday, 18-August we flew out of Wellington and arrived in Sydney on a cold, wet night. We unknowingly booked a hostel in the red-light district, but it was on a relatively quiet street! One day we took a ferry over to the north shore of the harbour to visit Taronga Zoo; it was one of the best zoos we've ever been to! We got to see all of the Australian animals (roos, wallabies, echidnas, platypus, koalas, lizards, emus, etc, etc, etc) - quite cool! On another day we took the bus out to Bondi Beach and walked down the coastal [View Full Entry]

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April 14 - April 22, 2008. Central Otago adventure! We flew from Wellington to Christchurch ($29 one-way fares!) to experience a Southern hemisphere autumn in one of the most beautiful areas of NZ. Emily found a relocation deal online with the vehicle rental company Jucy, who market themselves as the "best second-tier rental company in NZ." We got a campervan, an RV -- the Jucy "CHARGA". It was a 3-berth van and the camper part was pretty cool. The only real drawback was that it was an older model of Toyota truck and mechanically the vehicle had definitely seen its better [View Full Entry]

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More photos from our weekend and holiday adventures around the Wellington & Wairarapa region. The weather from December through March was beautiful and it was quite a unique experience spending Christmas & New Years being able to wear shorts outside. We really had a great summer with all of our Kiwi friends! [View Full Entry]

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Our good friends Jeremy & Phoebe both grew up in the suburb areas north of Auckland and their families still live up there. They very kindly invited us to spend the holidays with them and their families in the “winterless” north. We also got to spend time with members of our own family, as Denny’s cousin Dan and his wife Diana scheduled a tour of New Zealand over the holidays! The trip began with us driving out of Wellington and heading to the “City of Sails” on the Saturday before Christmas. We took the scenic route to Auckland and traveled on [View Full Entry]

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Denny’s mom and dad (Marcia and Dennis) came to visit us in November ‘07. They had flown into Auckland, so we loaded up the old Legend and drove up to the City of Sails to meet them. We spent the first few days of their visit seeing the sights in and around the city (visiting the museums, the shops on Queen Street and the old military base in North Head, Devonport). Leaving Auckland, we headed south and then east over to the Coromandel peninsula. Unfortunately, our pride and joy of a vehicle (the Legend) started to develop an aversion to the [View Full Entry]

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This website crashed around July/August timeframe '07. Emily & Alicia spent a lot of time and effort recovering and restoring many of the older blog/picture entries. Needless to say that after that experience, we were hesitant on creating new entries until the website got its issues worked out. That is why we have so many new entries posting now spanning back to last August! Hope you enjoy these pictures from our weekend and holiday excursions around the Wellington & Wairarapa region. [View Full Entry]

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Emily's sister Alicia and her husband Bryan came to visit us in August '07. They flew into Wellington and we spent the first few days of their visit seeing the sights in and around the city. During that time we drove up into the Wairarapa region north of Wellington to visit the wineries and hang out with our Kiwi friends Jeremy & Phoebe. We also went to the Wellington Lions rugby game at Westpac Stadium in Wellington. It was a very very cold night, but the Lions won! We then loaded up our pride and joy of an automobile (the fabulous [View Full Entry]

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West Coast up to Nelson & Picton Australasia » New Zealand » South Island » West Coast By Pinky and The Brain July 8th 2007 Emily and Denny Crazy one-lane bridge This is the major north-south highway on the west coast... trains & cars share the bridge!Westport - July 25, 2007; Nelson - July 26, 2007; Picton - July 27, 2007... Arrived in the town of Greymouth early on a cold and rainy Monday morning. The town definitely had an "industrial" feel to it and unlike the majority of the other places in the South Island we had been through, this [View Full Entry]

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Franz Josef Glacier - July 22, 2007; Fox Glacier - July 23, 2007; Hokitika/Ross - July 24, 2007... Throughout the entire trip Denny insisted on pulling over and stopping at various random spots along the highway to take in the views. (It's apparently impossible for him to drive past any sort of scenic view without taking a photo.) But sometimes it can be nice to break up a car trip with a few walks and picture breaks. Most of the west coast is quite sparse in the population department, and it was a good thing we fueled up in Hokitika [View Full Entry]

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Arthurs Pass region in the Southern Alps mountains - July 21, 2007... The first place we visited in this region known as Canterbury in the South Island was the area called Castle Hill. According to info from our travel books, the hill was so named because of the imposing array of limestone boulders in the area reminiscent of an old, run-down stone castle. (The front of the Christ Church Cathedral in Christchurch is made from Castle Hill limestone.) This area is extremely popular with rock climbers and recently the 'Flock Hill station' was used for the filming of the climactic [View Full Entry]

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