G'day, Mate!

After an amazing five weeks in New Zealand, Laura and I hopped a flight from Christchurch (on the south island) to Auckland (on the north), then another to Sydney in the Land Down Under. We arrived late on a Friday night with only a few vague ideas about what we wanted to see and do during our month-long stay in Australia, a mode of travel we’re both starting to get pretty comfortable with. Our four days in Sydney included some great walks, a few scenic ferry rides, a ridiculous afternoon at the Four Seasons spa, one very quirky B&B and another “boutique” hotel (we are *so* over that word), a bit of post-Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade chaos, one very grumpy walk through Chinatown in search of breakfast, birthday tequila shots, and even a bit of culture at the Sydney Opera House.

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New Zealand's Down Under

The deep south tour took us from Queenstown to Milford Sound (and Gunn’s Camp, a lovely little spot which you’ve no doubt already read about), down to Invercargill and on a ferry for an overnight on Stewart Island, then back up the Catlins Coast to Dunedin, finally looping back into Queenstown. It was a bit of a whirlwind tour, but one that we’re glad we took!

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Milf(j)ord Sound

For a portion of our New Zealand tour that we almost skipped (the “deep south”), the southern loop turned out to be one of our favorite parts of the trip! There weren’t a heck of a lot of funny backpacker stories to share, just some incredible scenery, a few more million sandflies, and some looooong days of riding on the Stray bus.

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Travel Tech Talk

A recent comment by Nathan Fisher reminded me that we’re overdue for another exciting installment of Travel Tech Talk with Dustin. [Cue theme music intro] So in honor of Valentine’s Day (in the US, at least), please enjoy this very romantic and riveting geek update!

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Chaos With Curry

We woke up on Sunday morning in Picton after three tough days on the Queen Charlotte Track, and we were glad to know we didn’t have to rush for an early Stray bus pickup (the new bunch we were joining up with had taken the 8AM ferry from Wellington, so they wouldn’t be coming through Picton until close to noon). We enjoyed a really great breakfast at a place called Gusto – it was maybe the best breakfast we’ve had so far on the trip. It also arrived at our table in less than 45 minutes, which is more than we can say for the dinner we had at the place down the street the night before. After a bit of email and blogging back at our hostel, it was time to meet the new crew.

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Gumboots Special Olympics

Our final three days traveling with Mr. Scoobs and Mambo were pretty unexciting, unless you count getting rained out of doing the Tongariro Crossing, a minor gumboot mishap, a semi-major medical emergency (not one of us, don’t worry Moms), and a full-on breakdown of Mr. Scoobs on our way to Wellington.

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Hail to the Chief

Laura and I are taking a “down” day in cloudy Abel Tasman today to catch up on email, photos, blog, and the random bits of real life (mostly bills and the like) that still have to be dealt with while we’re traveling. We’re also taking this opportunity to exercise the “off” option of the hop-on/hop-off Stray bus tour… having spent a really fun week or so on Mr. Scoobs with Mambo as our driver, we’re already missing his laid back style and wickedly dry sense of humor (though not the mechanical unreliability of Mr. Scoobs, may he RIP), so we’re hoping the next bus and driver will suit us a little better than the one we joined yesterday in Picton for our south island loop.

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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!

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.

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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