Latest Photos

Just a quick post to let everyone know that we have new photos up from our days on the north island of New Zealand (Maketu, Rotorua, & Taupo, and Tongariro to Wellington), plus the ferry crossing from Wellington to Picton and our three-day “walk” (aka death march) on the truly beautiful Queen Charlotte Track. We’re working on a couple of posts with more juicy details, as well as captions for the photos, but we wanted to share the images while we had decent internet. Enjoy!

Hippies & Hahei & Hot Water, Oh My!

Well, we said farewell to gumboots and free wi-fi a few hours after our last post – Mr. Scoobs made a miraculous recovery thanks to some good luck and a very talented local mechanic, and we made it to Wellington only four hours later than expected. We’re in a lovely idyllic hostel in Picton now, waiting to catch a boat up to the northern end of the Queen Charlotte Track. We’ll spend the next two and a half days hiking back down the track along the Marlborough Sound, and then we’ll reconnect with the Stray bus on Sunday. Especially after not being able to do the Tongariro Crossing earlier this week, we’re both really looking forward to getting out on a trail for a few days (assuming Dusty’s ankle holds up!).

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Mr. Scoobs on Life Support!

Lustin is currently stranded in a town called Taihape thanks to an ailing Mr. Scoobs. You may recognize Taihape as the home of Gumboot Day, which includes the world’s largest Gumboot (i.e Wellingtons) Throwing Competition. (Be sure to ask Dustin how he did today when he tried to throw a gumboot. Let’s just say that he would probably qualify for the Gumboot Special Olympics if there were one…)

Today was scheduled to be our last day with Mr. Scoobs, and we thought we were in the clear — but the old bastard had one last trick up his sleeve. The starter engine won’t start or something like that, and we’ve currently got a local mechanic working on it. Not sure when we’ll get to Wellington tonight — it’s still 3 hours away.

We’re currently using the first free WiFi we’ve found in this country (in the local library — imagine that!)… we’re so happy about it that we may just abandon the rest of the trip and move here.

Coromandel Pics

Finally getting some more pictures up. These were taken up on the lovely Coromandel Peninsula last week, where we spent one night in a little beach town called Hahei with a new group from Stray. We had a blast up there and will write more about it soon. :)

Magnum P.I.

I recently learned that there are over twenty varieties of Magnum ice cream bars, sold here in New Zealand (and Australia) under the Streets brand. So far, I’ve spotted nine species of them in the wild: Classic, Almond, Ego Caramel, Peppermint, Ecuador Dark, White (why bother?), Colombian Aroma Choco-Cappuccino (wah?), Big Choc Bikkie (my favorite just for the name), and the new Magnum Sandwich. I’ve made it my personal mission to bag (or in this case, un-bag) one specimen of each before we head to the South Pacific. I will post my trophies as they are won.

They Call Me Mr. Scoobs!

We woke up Thursday morning to a sunny day in Auckland and got ready to begin the next leg of our trip. I was already feeling much better (thank you, Zicam!), and Dustin was miraculously still healthy despite wading through piles of my used Kleenex over the previous 72 hours. Unlike our short trip to the Bay of Islands, we knew that the bus driver and majority of backpackers we started with on this leg of the journey with Stray would probably be with us for a while, so we hoped for the best.

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Backpack, Come Back!

Our return trip to Auckland (or “Dorkland” as the Kiwis refer to it) from the Bay of Islands was mostly uneventful except for one minor adventure. We’d been driving along in our 24-seater bus for about 15 minutes when I heard a car horn blowing somewhere behind us. Dustin also noticed, and he wisely decided to look behind us to see what was up.

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A Series of Unfortunate Events

Itʼs funny how a series of seemingly small and insignificant events can change the flow of things. Laura started to feel a cold/flu coming on as we made our way up from Auckland to Paihia on the first day of our Stray bus experience (which was otherwise really fun and social). Our plan was to wake up early the following morning (Monday) and join a separate tour (included in the Stray pass weʼd purchased) that went to the far north end of New Zealand to Cape Reinga, where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific Ocean.

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Going a-Stray

On our last day in Auckland, we started to think “Hmm, maybe we should figure out where the heck we’re going from here and how we should get ourselves there.” We researched all the New Zealand-owned car rental companies, which are pretty damn cheap but use really old, high-mileage cars (one company said the Nissan we rented might be from 1998!). Having just finished months of being in logistics mode at home getting ready for a wedding and a year-long trip, we weren’t exactly excited about having to sort out mobile phone cards, booking lodging for ourselves every night, finding our way in a rental car, and deciding what to do and see everyday. Quite the intrepid travelers, no?

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Love in the Time of a Head Cold

So, when I said we’d write about the “good, the bad, and the ugly” aspects of a long trip around the world, I wasn’t expecting that the “ugly” part would make an appearance quite so soon. But my immune system seemed to have other plans.

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