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Published: February 15th 2008
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Fern
I've always loved the way ferns grow, so I had to take this picture. This was along the Abel Tasman hiking trail. After traveling around for almost 3 1/2 months, it has been really nice to stay in one place for more than a week. As I mentioned in my last entry, I arrived in New Zealand on New Year's Eve and had a chance to chill on my own before heading south to travel with my friend Paul. We had a great time exploring the north end of the South Island. We visited lots of wineries and tasted some great wines in the Marlborough region. Outside of Nelson we went on an awesome hike along the Abel Tasman Track. It was a 20km (about 12.5 mile) hike that we planned to do in 6 hours. We started at a pretty leisurely pace (taking lots of pictures, relaxing for lunch, etc.) which put us a bit behind schedule, so we ended up having to power walk for the last few hours to make sure we caught our bus. I'd love to go back on a more leisurely schedule and stop at some of the beautiful beaches we had to bypass. It was truly an amazing place and the coastal hiking was probably the best I've done. We also had a chance to explore
View from Abel Tasman track
The views from the Abel Tasman track on the South Island were breathtaking. Christchurch and spent a few days in Kaikoura, but unfortunately didn't have the best weather during our time in Kaikoura. I'd love to revisit during whale season as it's one of the better places to see them during their migration. One thing we did notice consistently was a lack of people. I suppose that was relative to what we were used to. It seemed no matter where we went that even though it's summer and high season, there were never any crowds. It's such a beautiful place that you forget the total population across both islands is only about 4 million people.
I came back to Auckland on Jan 13th and was very excited to see my sister and her family. I hadn't seen them since last April, shortly before their move to Auckland. They have settled in here really well and have a nice home in an area called Howick. It's about 30 minutes outside of Auckland city, but has a charming village that is in walking distance from their house. The kids school is also in walking distance. The view from their playground is amazing. Prime real estate like this wouldn't likely be used for public schools
Mellons Bay
View of the bay walking from my sister's house into Howick Village back in the USA. (at least not any schools I've seen) I've been living a rather domestic existence for the past month, which has been a nice change...for a little while at least. I've played more board games (Monopoly, Sorry, Scrabble...and yes, Chutes and Ladders) than I recall playing in probably a lifetime. My niece and nephew are a blast, Faith is 8 and such a girl (princess dresses and all things girlie) and Luke is 5 and a total boy (makes silly noises, loves to play fight and play sports). Helen has also made an effort to get out and show me Auckland, so we've been out to hike at Rangitoto Island (a volcanic island), snorkeled at Goat's Island, watched the kids body board at several beaches and did a few local hikes. Being the dutiful Aunt that I am, I volunteered to take the kids to the ice skating rink one afternoon. I had flashbacks to the 70's and roller skating rinks. Only now, I was on ice (a bit shakier than 4 wheels per foot) and they had really loud music,videos and a fog machine. A bit of sensory overload when you are trying to just stay
The McAllister's
My sister Helen and her family moved to Auckland, New Zealand in 2007 so I've been lucky enough to spend some time with them in a beautiful country. (Faith, Mark, Helen and Luke) vertical. I know you'll be jealous, but I've also seen Alvin and the Chipmunks at the cinema. A far cry from my days wandering around undeveloped countries. :}
I've been fortunate to have met up with a few of my friends during my time in Auckland. My friend Matt worked with me as an intern during my days at Amajac Capital (2005). He was attending Auckland's International Business School at the time and has stayed on in NZ to work. He invited me out for a sailing race one Friday night. It was a gorgeous night where I had the chance to meet Matt's girlfriend and quite a few of his friends, in addition to just enjoying being out on the water. Since then, I've unexpectedly connected with a few people I met while traveling in Western Australia. Last weekend Matt and I had planned to go hiking with a few friends, but due to the weather (and my severe hangover from the previous night :]) we revised our schedule to Sunday brunch and a movie. We decided afterwards to attempt to go sailing (questionable weather being the reason I say "attempt") on Matt's sailboat Sweet Pea and also
2 of my favorite people
Luke, Faith and me before catching a ferry to Rangitoto Island for a hike with the whole family. Auckland skyline in the background do some fishing. We didn't have much wind so we had to motor out to the fishing spot and joked with Matt about making sure we had enough petrol. He assured us (more than once) that there was more than enough. We didn't catch a lot of fish (just 2) but had fun trying. I had beginners luck and caught the biggest fish of the day. We started heading back to shore but still didn't have enough wind to rely on the sails. About 2/3 of the way back, you can probably guess what happened....yep, we ran out of petrol. (ooops!) Apparently, one of the other guys Matt owns the boat with had taken it out and hadn't bothered to replace the petrol he used. We had just taken the sails down due to the lack of wind and in preparation for getting to shore. The main sail went back up and Matt had to demonstrate his expert sailing skills. I should also mention that in addition to the lack of wind and empty petrol can, the cable that controls the keel had snapped at the beginning of our trip. We had a beautiful view of the Auckland skyline at
View from kid's school
We never had views like this where I grew up...much less from the school playground. night, so as passengers we weren't complaining but did feel bad for Matt who was working pretty hard. He did contemplate calling the Coast Guard but in the end managed to get us safely to shore (a few hours later) and I got to have some yummy red snapper for dinner the next night.
It's hard to believe I'll be flying back to the States in just 3 weeks. I'll be touring the north end of the North Island with my friend Kat (we met on a tour in Western Australia) starting Sunday. I'm excited to finally see the Bay of Islands and dive at Poor Knights Island. Hopefully I'll have some more adventurous stories to share with you in my next entry. It will be hard to leave New Zealand...especially my sister and her family. I'm hoping to update my blog again before I leave the country but in case I don't, for my friends in Dallas...I'll likely be there on March 8th...so I'd love to catch up. Please let me know if you'll be around. As always, please drop me a line and let me know what's going on in your lives.
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