In the Maori language New Zealand is know as Aotearoa. Which translates into “Land of the Long White Cloud.” Though in Whangarei, I renamed it to Land of the Rainbow, because I saw a rainbow everyday. Some of the most spectacular rainbows I’ve ever seen I’ve seen in NZ. And thanks to a guy named Murphy and his Laws I find myself back in Aotearoa, just a short 48 hours after I left. I’m currently sitting in the marina in Opua, Bay of Islands, New Zealand. Opua is the yachties town for Bay of Islands while Paihia is the tourist [View Full Entry]

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No, this has nothing to do with Boy Scouts. I’m just putting it here because I forgot to put it in the last blog, not that it really belongs there either. It’s just a theme that has come up several times in travels around NZ. For those that don’t know, Scout’s words of wisdom are “It’s a wise man who shits when he can, and a foolish man that shits when he has to.” She uttered these famous words sitting on the near side of Ruth Glacier outside of McCarthy, Alaska. (On the near side was a porcupine chewed up outhouse, [View Full Entry]

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Ok not really Auckland. I'm camped in my van at Karekare again. I thought it somehow fitting that my last night in the van should be the same place that I spent my first night. Besides it pretty here. The last week I spent doing mostly nothing in Rotorua with Erin, Leslie and Jack. I hadn't planned on being there so long. I was supposed to be selling the van and heading to Whangarei to get the boat ready. But, well Erin said there was a release on the Tongariro this weekend. It’s pretty rare for them to release this river. [View Full Entry]

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Missing Freycinet Photos Missing Tassie Photos So I've finally gotten my missing/deleted photos from Freycinet National Park and Tasmania back. Thanks so much to Damian at Harvey Norman in Hobart for doing all the work to recover them from my XD card. He then put them on a CD and sent them to me in NZ. So very nice. So the pics of the Tassie devil and kangaroos are from a wildlife park outside of Hobart. The rest are mostly from Fr [View Full Entry]

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Today I'm actually in Rotorua on the North Island. I arrived back and Erin and Leslies house late Sunday night after a very long day or driving. Not really doing much these days, just hanging out. Saturday I'll probably paddle on the Tongariro and then head up to Whangarei to meet up with my Uncle Paul. Mike Wilson left on Sunday morning after we got off of the ferry. I told him he had to write the TR of the week we had. The summary is we went sea kayaking, hiking, mtn. biking and whitewater kayaking. I've my pics for you [View Full Entry]

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After meeting Mike Wilson at the ferry terminal we sat down to a lunch of lobster tails and L&P and a discussion of what to do with Mike’s week in New Zealand. There was whitewater kayaking in Murchison, sightseeing everywhere, sea kayaking in Abel Tasman and Marlborough Sounds, mountain biking, hiking. You name it, we could do it. In the end we decided to start the week off with a 3+ day sea kayaking trip up Queen Charlotte sound. We would leave Anikiwa at the head of the sound early Sunday morning and return to Picton with the water taxi Wednesday [View Full Entry]

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Well after 2+ days of driving, I’ve finally arrived in Picton, and am waiting on the 1:40 ferry from Wellington with Mike Wilson on it. I left Te Anau on Thursday morning and have pretty much been in the car ever since. I spent a few hours in Queenstown to do the pictures and a few hours at Mt. Cook. Really did the drive by on Mt . Cook. “Look kids, Big Ben.” What a shame, Mt. Cook really deserves more time, but a strange sequence of decisions pretty much killed my time for Mt. Cook…. But we’ll get to that [View Full Entry]

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I'm in Queenstown, wasting time and uploading pictures, so I thought I would share with you the links. West Coast to Hokitika Road to Wanaka and Puzzle World Glenorchy Milford Sound Doubtful Sound Oh [View Full Entry]

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Well today I'm in Te Anau... not Queenstown as originally intended. That is why you didn't get any pictures today... I'm sorry. I can't upload pics from anyplace in town. But I did catch up the blogs. I may go back tomorrow and upload pics. It depends on what time I get out of here. I have to be in Picton on Saturday morning and its 17-18 hours away. Oh and if you are reading this, you should know that I've typed like 6 blogs today, so you read them all if you want... the first one I typed today is [View Full Entry]

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I first arrived in Te Anau on the 5th of April and promptly took off for Milford Sound, driving up the Milford Rd....spectacular is all I can say. At one point you go through a tunnel, that is over 1KM long. It goes right through this vertical wall of rock. I really couldn't see any way up and over this wall at all, it is sheer. In Milford I did a day's sea kayaking trip.... once again... spectacular. I really can't describe in words what I saw. I hope my pictures do, we'll see. Also it was rainy and cloudy my [View Full Entry]

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