Blogs from Wellington Region, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 13

Our SPCA adopted doggie Lola is a real blessing. After only a week with her we have completely fallen head over heels in love. She is a beauty. Calm when you want her to be, excited when you want her to be. She is already walking next to me on the lead, and despite a few glitches here and there is overall a very easily trained dog. Some pics of our first 'child'.... read more

A last minute decision to "go bush" this weekend turned out to be an excellent idea. The Levin side of the Tararuas weather forecast was for full sun both days, something that never occurs in the usually cloudy and overcast, rainy Tararua National Park. It must have been the first time I have ever seen the tops so calm and clear. The pictures say it all. We hiked for 5 hours up to Waiopehu hut, mostly uphill in typical backcountry terrain. It was tough, to say the least, as we were going up we wondered how we used to tramp for so long. It takes a couple of hikes to get back into it, after a year of being away from NZ it was expected. The hut is perched just below the bushline, and overlooks the ... read more

Hello In case you were wondering what the next plan is and to give you all a vague idea of my location(s) for the next four to five months, I thought I'd post another blog. So on the 12th of May Sarah and I will fly to Shanghai, China. We will spend 3 nights in Shanghai before flying to Beijing where we will start an Intrepid journey of the Silk road (). The tour covers 4,000km across the breath of China, from Beijing, to the mountains of Tian Chi, camel riding in the Taklimakan desert and concluding in Kashgar, right on the western side of China. We will be seeing the Great Wall and the Terracotta warriors among a zillion other things. Travel by train, bus (both private and local) and boat. At the end of ... read more

I’m so glad to finally be somewhere that 90% of the food is organic. Even the McDonald’s is healthier here because of the oil they use. There’s fruit and vegetables in the house at all times, and they don’t really used processed food. Instead of going shopping and buying a lot groceries at once, they prefer to go to the supermarket a few times a week so their food is fresh. Families always eat dinner together, and sometimes breakfast. They cook a lot here because eating out is so expensive. I don’t mind, I’ve been eating at a restaurant for years now. It’s nice to have home cooked meals and sit down together. It’s a new thing for me to discuss my day with someone, and it be positive conversation, haha. Don’t get me wrong, I ... read more

We got up and started making the arrangements to fly home. We had to go through American Airlines (Quanta’s Partner). Of course the call went to India. The lady on the phone was very nice but inexperienced since it was her first day. It took about 3 hours to get everything booked. We were very fortunate to be able to rebook our flights for the next day. We then booked a flight from Wellington to Auckland and Ron & Sylvia drove use to the Wellington Airport the next morning. Talk about the luck of the Irish on St. Patrick’s Day. Not only did we get the flights we wanted but Quanta’s was running a $59.00 special from Wellington to Auckland and we were able to check our baggage all the way through to LA. I cannot ... read more