Hi All, LONG TIME no write. Sean and I are back in Seattle now. We've been here since April 3rd. We've been working on updating and finalizing our New Zealand blog, it has just been a very slow process. In any case, I have put pictures up from our last adventure on the South Island (Nelson Lakes) up through Cape Reinga on the North Island. We have about 6 more blogs were finishing the writing for right now, so as those come up you'll get the emails. As we work on those we'll also be going through and adding more photos, [View Full Entry]

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Alfred Hitchcock is truly a master director. Going within 80 miles from the site where several scenes of "Vertigo" was to much to pass up! We stopped at the Mission San Juan Bautista. The church was built by the Spanish in the 16th century. The whole area has a surreal vibe to it, at the very least it was an excellent place to stretch our legs. The rest of the drive was uneventful and long. Leaving L.A. at 12pm we arrived in the Emerald City at 7am. Emily was still not feeling well so she slept most of the way in [View Full Entry]

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After several delays in Fiji we finally got over the Atlantic and back to home soil! Flying into L.A. looking at the sprawling city got me thinking. Millions of people live down there. At any moment we are laughing, crying, sleeping, singing and most likely working. At 10,000 feet none of this is apparent, the emotions we feel and most of the actions we do are not noticeable at this altitude. For me this means chill out! Worry & anger have rarely helped any of us, its time to let that go and not think of going through customs, how we're [View Full Entry]

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Upon landing in Fiji it felt like we were there to be preyed on. Our ride to the resort wasn’t there, a guy was trying to sell me pot and we overpaid for the taxi ride. I asked the driver if there were any grocery stores where we would be staying. We would be 15 miles from the nearest market, completely dependent on whatever the resort charged us. Arriving at the Seashell @ Momi Budget Resort around 10pm we were told not to drink anything but bottled water. I woke up at 6am to hot and muggy weather. After Emily [View Full Entry]

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Having given up on trying to sell the car, we decided to have one last road trip with it! We blasted down the only real highway New Zealand has then turned east. Our plan was to drive around the peninsula and camp two days, mixing in some hiking along the way. The first city we passed was Thames. I could see why many Aucklanders would want to have a place here. In the summer this area is buzzing with activity. With the start of the southern hemispheres very few people were around. We drove into the Coromandel Forest Park and found [View Full Entry]

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The ride out of Kaitai was very scenic. John told us of a couple places to stop. Taking the “scenic tour” we had to cross a lake via a ferry. Further down the road we stopped a couple times to walk around the largest Kauri tree’s left. Nearly every one of the magnificent trees were cut, starting with early explorers like Captain cook who found them to be idea for use as a mast. These tree’s are estimated to be over 2,000 years old, it was difficult to translate the size of them through the pictures. Approaching Auckland we had coffee [View Full Entry]

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We’re off the trail and back Woofing. Kaitai is the nearest town, we’re about 8 miles northeast. John is our host. He is 62 and has lived here for the past 15 years. Like some places we have stayed he bought the land first and built everything on it by himself, including a wind turbine and solar panels, which supply him with all the electricity he needs. When John was approaching retirement age he worried about having the funds to support himself, not counting on Federal aid to help him. Today he lives largely a sustainable lifestyle both in resource wise [View Full Entry]

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Hey All, Sean and I spent 3 nights up at the most northern point of the North Island, around Cape Reinga. We pitched our tent at a gorgeous little beach on the north east side and did day hikes during the day. Our first full day there we did a 6.5 hour loop of the north end of the cape. We were able to follow the coast line from our campsite up to the cape itself and then down a beach on on the Northwest side and across some massive sand dunes and back through the bush and onto the road [View Full Entry]

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Hello again, Sean and I are now on a dairy farm in Waipapa, just north of Keri Keri in the Bay of Islands. We arrived here yesterday morning around 10 am and will be here until tomorrow. The farm is run my a gentleman, Clive, that we met down on Stewart Island. He has 600 acres here, with 400 cows and a massive fruit orchard with every citrus fruit you can think of. Clive took Sean and I around on ATVs yesterday to show us the land. He has a magnificent view of the Bay of Islands and the "Hole in [View Full Entry]

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Take 2... I wrote this all up yesterday and didn't save it (when will I learn!?) and lost it. Meh. So here we go again... Sean and I are back on the mainland as of March 12th. We left from Rotoroa early, early morning March 8th to catch the Sealink Ferry from Auckland to the Great Barrier Island (named as such by Cpt Cook who said the Island acted as a barrier between the ocean and the bay that Auckland is now in). Just an FYI to those of our readers already in New Zealand, or considering coming to New Zealand, [View Full Entry]

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