Karen and Colin
thetravelbugtribe
We were twotravelbugs but now we are three we have become the travelbug tribe! We hope to instil in our daughter our love of travel, of exploring, of discovering. We are full of ideas and excitement, just waiting for our chance to see more of the world and bring her along with us.
Feel free to read through some of our travels. Many of our adventures were before we discovered travelblog so you'll just have to ask us about those. We have grouped some of our blogs into 'trips', shown below. Click on the relevant tab to see where we went and what we thought. Otherwise there is a search feature, or you can just scroll through the blogs and browse. However you read them, enjoy! And please leave us some feedback, we love reading your comments.
Thanks for having a look at what we have been up to, and keep watching, who knows what past, present or future trip we'll add next.
Travel Blog Posts
April 3rd 2011
March 27th – April 3rd 2011 Cape Palliser From Wellington we drove up the Hutt Valley, across the Rimutakas and back down to the coast. We were heading for Cape Palliser, the southernmost point in the North Island. We had done the most northerly and most southerly in the South Island, and figured we might as well do the North Island ones too. We'll have to leave North Cape for another trip though. We were disappointed not to find a sign saying it was the southern most point with latitude and longitude, but maybe we were just not quite in the right place. We did climb the 250 steps up to the lighthouse, enjoy the amazing views, and climb back down the 250 steps. All along the coast there were NZ Fur Seals, on the beach, ... read more
March 26th 2011
March 19th - 26th 2011 We didn't get up to a lot of exciting things over the past few days so hopefully it wont take me too long to catch up with blogging. Also hopefully this wont turn into a “we went here then went there” kind of blog, but I have a feeling that it might, so I'll apologise in advance. Once again, its not like we didn't have fun but there was nothing spectacular or amazing, and we once again only too a few photos too. But please read on and find out what we did get up to. Nelson From Riwaka and our lovely French hosts we drove to Nelson, stopping first at a place called Rabbit Island for lunch and a walk along the beach. This is the kind of place we'd ... read more
Abel Tasman pt II
Published: March 25th 2011Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Abel Tasman National Park
March 18th 2011
March 17th - 18th 2011 From Cape Farewell and the beautiful Wharariki Beach (see last blog), we drove back towards Motueka, stopping briefly in Takaka for a look around. Its a neat small town, very arty and a bit hippy-ish. The library has free internet (wi-fi and PC) but they only allow a certain number of people to use the wi-fi at a time. I guess the people sitting in front of their laptops outside aren't counted! We had a short wait for our turn to sit in the little room, but when we got in there we found Sarah, our last CS host, and a German girl we'd hosted just before Christmas, both surfing away. Small world! We weren't surprised to see Sarah as she was the one who told us about the free wi-fi, ... read more
“Farewell” said Captain Cook in 1770, and the name stuck
Published: March 24th 2011Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Nelson Region » Golden Bay
March 17th 2011
March 16th - 17th 2011 We seem to have formed a habit or custom over the years that each year someone has a birthday or an anniversary or some important date somewhere different or special. Whether we are overseas (I had a great birthday in a hurricane in Cuba one year) or in New Zealand, we make an effort to ensure that day is one to remember. Sometimes its just a tour somewhere interesting, but it becomes that persons special time. Often we would do the tour or visit the place anyway, but it always seems better when its a treat for someone or something. And I'm sure we're not the only ones who do this. I'm sure now we are a family, we'll be setting up more habits or customs around special days. Yesterday was ... read more
March 15th 2011
The above panorama is of Golden Bay (coast and valley) from Takaka Hill. March 10th - 15th 2011 From Greymouth we took the inland road to Reefton and on past Inangahua towards Nelson. We stopped for the afternoon / night at a DOC camp-ground at the old gold mining town of Lyell. There isn't a lot there now, none of the buildings remain and we didn't hike as far as the old battery. There are boards with old photos up around the camp, but its hard to work out exactly what was where as the landscape has changed quite a bit. As well as going for a walk along the river with us, Colin had a go at gold panning and came back with a few more specks to add to our collection. While he did ... read more
March 9th 2011
March 3rd - 9th 2011 Twizel I'm not sure what to write about Twizel. It was a nice enough place for a town built to service the dam construction project (Waitaki Hydro Scheme, several lakes created, eight power stations). We stopped at a camp ground for the usual shower and laundry. It was one of the coldest nights we have camped out on this trip so far. And thats about all we saw / did there. When we were in the i-site we overheard someone saying it was raining up at Aoraki Mt Cook and the road was about to be closed due to high winds, but that tomorrow was forecast to be much better. Good, we were heading there the next day. We had noticed that the wind was strong. We'd been driving (very slowly) ... read more
March 2nd 2011
Dunedin to Duntroon February 26th – March 2nd 2011 Dunedin As we'd both been to Dunedin before, we treated ourselves to a couple of relaxing days and didn't rush around trying to see everything. It was also a good chance to catch up with friends and for Samara to interact with another baby. We greatly appreciate Aaron, Yvette and Stella welcoming us into their home, especially as they already had friends from Christchurch with them. It was great sleeping inside for a few nights and having access to a bathroom that didn't involve a long drop! We also had some of the best dinners on this trip so far – the benefits of a decent kitchen. We had two full days in the city. The first we went out to the Otago Peninsula. Following Aaron and ... read more
Stewart Island and the Catlins Coast
Published: March 9th 2011Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Southland
February 25th 2011
The above panorama is of Porpoise Bay, somewhere in there are some Hectors Dolphins. February 20th - 25th 2011 Stewart Island Well, the kiwi were as elusive as the kea, not that we were really surprised. We had a good time on Stewart Island, but it wasn't as good as we expected. I think it was the weather more than anything, it's hard to do much outside in the rain! Rain apparently falls on Stewart Island, or Rakiura, about 265 days a year. Halfmoon Bay gets about 1600mm, and the south and west of the island can get up to 5000mm a year. No wonder the island is covered with lush rainforest! The Maori name for the island, Rakiura, came about when Te Rakitamau, the second son of Tukekawa crossed Te Ara a Kewa, or Foveaux ... read more
Sounds Amazing
Published: February 26th 2011Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Fiordland National Park
February 19th 2011
The panorama is of Redcliff Wetlands February 14-19th 2011 A boat trip on one of the sounds was high on our list of things we wanted to do on this trip. We'd been asking around as to whether we should go out on Milford or Doubtful Sound. Most people said either would be good, but the overall impression we got was that Doubtful was better. It was certainly more expensive, but we treated ourselves – went totally for broke! - and booked an overnight cruise with Fiordland Expeditions. Doubtful Sound Doubtful Sound is the second largest of the 14 fiords in Fiordland NP (Dusky Sound is the largest). It is three times longer than Milford Sound and has a sea surface area of roughly 10 times that of Milford Sound. It has three arms – Hall, ... read more
February 13th 2011
The above panorama is from Jackson Bay looking back towards Haast 7th February - 13th February 2011 Its been hard getting motivated to write these blogs at the moment. Its not like we aren't doing anything – we are busy every day. Its just that travelling round our own country is so different than travelling somewhere else, somewhere different, that we don't really feel like we are on holiday. We certainly don't feel like tourists (though we don't like to think of ourselves as tourists wherever we go) as here we speak the same language, drive the same, use the same money (no need to worry about foreign currency transaction charges), the shops are the same, the food is the same. We are far from bored, we are loving the time away with Samara, loving exploring ... read more
thetravelbugtribe
| Joined | March 13th 2007 | Trips | 9 |
| Last Login | May 13th 2012 | Followers | 5 |
| Status | BLOGGER | Follows | 8 |
| Blogs | 121 | Guestbook | 79 |
| Photos | 1,734 | Forum Posts | 156 |
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Where we have been
Map Legend: 28%, 74 of 263 Territories
Places we have lived 
Countries we have visited 
Everywhere unmarked is probably on our "want to visit" list!
Trips
Some of the Middle East 2002
September 16th 2002 -» October 24th 2002
Our Trans-Africa Experience 2002-03
November 10th 2002 -» July 28th 2003
Brunei - Dubai - UK mini trip
January 3rd 2007 -» February 3rd 2007
Cambodia 2007
October 27th 2007 -» November 16th 2007
Cuba and Mexico 2008
September 6th 2008 -» November 17th 2008
East Cape (Whangarei to Napier the long way)
April 3rd 2009 -» April 19th 2009
The twotravelbugs tiki tour of Sabah
August 21st 2009 -» September 13th 2009
Western Australia - Perth to Exmouth
May 15th 2010 -» May 23rd 2010
the travelbug tribe hit the South Island
January 11th 2011 -» April 5th 2011
September 16th 2002 -» October 24th 2002
Our Trans-Africa Experience 2002-03
November 10th 2002 -» July 28th 2003
Brunei - Dubai - UK mini trip
January 3rd 2007 -» February 3rd 2007
Cambodia 2007
October 27th 2007 -» November 16th 2007
Cuba and Mexico 2008
September 6th 2008 -» November 17th 2008
East Cape (Whangarei to Napier the long way)
April 3rd 2009 -» April 19th 2009
The twotravelbugs tiki tour of Sabah
August 21st 2009 -» September 13th 2009
Western Australia - Perth to Exmouth
May 15th 2010 -» May 23rd 2010
the travelbug tribe hit the South Island
January 11th 2011 -» April 5th 2011
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