Here is a picture of our car for inquiring minds.
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Friday, December 19, 2008
In the Wop Wops
Sticking to the schedule (with some twists and turns), Joe and I have been mighty busy! I quite liked how he has been doing the past posts, and I think I'll stick with the same format!
Joe and I spent 4 days and 3 nights canoing on the Whaganui River! It was incredible! We loaded our big red canoe with two water proof barrels, grabbed our paddles, and hit the water! It was just the two of us and the river, literally, in the middle of nowhere, or in Kiwi, the Wop Wops. The stretch of river we were on has no road access. We saw only 3 other canoes the entire time all on the first day, so we felt a big sense of isolation. Although most of the river is slow moving, there were some rapids to keep us on our toes! It is one of both of our favorite things we have done on the whole trip. I see a potential hobby on the horizon, and Joe used to make fun of me for wanting to river kayak!
Joe and I spent 4 days and 3 nights canoing on the Whaganui River! It was incredible! We loaded our big red canoe with two water proof barrels, grabbed our paddles, and hit the water! It was just the two of us and the river, literally, in the middle of nowhere, or in Kiwi, the Wop Wops. The stretch of river we were on has no road access. We saw only 3 other canoes the entire time all on the first day, so we felt a big sense of isolation. Although most of the river is slow moving, there were some rapids to keep us on our toes! It is one of both of our favorite things we have done on the whole trip. I see a potential hobby on the horizon, and Joe used to make fun of me for wanting to river kayak!
Being that we are in New Zealand, the very next day after the river adventure we found ourselves in a completely different world - Tongariro National Park. We had planned on doing a three day trek throughout the park, but settled on a long one day on the "Crossing" (what all the tourists do). We started the hike at 6am and walked through clouds for the first half. I can't say that I much enjoyed this first half. Apparently I'm not a fan of mountain tops because I was pretty miserable. The wind was roaring harder than I have ever felt, it was wet (my rain coat is just awful, shouldn't even call it a rain coat really), we were walking up a steep mountain, and we couldn't see any of the scenery. But! The way back was quite amazing. The clouds lifted enough that we were rewarded with glimpses of this crazy world.Well, apparently it's almost Christmas, a notion that has pretty much breezed by Joe and I unnoticed. Being from Colorado, we are lucky enough to have the idea that the holidays are a snow filled, chilly time of year, where once in a while you are blessed with a sheet of fluffy white snow on Christmas day. Here in New Zealand, Christmas means sunshine, beaches, and barbecues. Nevertheless, if we forget to say it, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! We are shipping ourselves and the car to the South Island tonight!
Thursday, December 11, 2008
On the NZ trail
Hey there everyone! Courtney and I are back from our first "tramp in the bush." NZ is by far the most goregous country I have ever seen, and we haven't even got to the so called "good stuff." I guess I'm loving quotation marks for the first little bit of this. So anyhow, we finally have a couple of our pictures uploaded for everyone to see. I will tell our story with the aid of these...
This first pic is of a friend we met named toni paddling out to sea to check his nets before sunset. He and his family (including the three cutest little girls on the planet) were living out of a bus on the corommandle penninsula. We happened to meet them while enjoying a beach side campsite for the evening. After introductions they invited us over for some fish that they had smoked in their bus. We chatted by the campfire and enjoyed an awesome evening. In the morning while they were rolling out of the campsite in their bus, they handed us an envelope and headed off. After opening it we found $100 NZ! We had told them that we hadn't ate at a restaurant in NZ, and had been eating pasta out of our car for the last two weeks. They said it was for going out to dinner, but going out for dinner here only costs about $15-$20 NZ. It gives you a little bit of an idea about how nice the folks are down here. 
Yet another pic that courtney the photographer took while on our trek. She has been doing an amazing job, and there are plenty of great photos we have yet to publish.
This first pic is of a friend we met named toni paddling out to sea to check his nets before sunset. He and his family (including the three cutest little girls on the planet) were living out of a bus on the corommandle penninsula. We happened to meet them while enjoying a beach side campsite for the evening. After introductions they invited us over for some fish that they had smoked in their bus. We chatted by the campfire and enjoyed an awesome evening. In the morning while they were rolling out of the campsite in their bus, they handed us an envelope and headed off. After opening it we found $100 NZ! We had told them that we hadn't ate at a restaurant in NZ, and had been eating pasta out of our car for the last two weeks. They said it was for going out to dinner, but going out for dinner here only costs about $15-$20 NZ. It gives you a little bit of an idea about how nice the folks are down here. This is a pic of our lakeside campsite outside of Rotorua. This is the most touristy town in NZ, and we managed to escape it for the evening at this campsite. It was quite the spot. Rotorua ended up being our least favorite spot we have seen thus far, and we had anticipate this prior to. Despite this, there was some really cool geothermal activity in the area, and we checked it out for a day.
This pic was snapped off on the way to Te Urewa National Park. ALL of the countryside here in NZ is gorgeous, and this gives you a good idea of what we get to look at on those down days when we are cruising around the country in the van.
Here is me cliff jumping into the lake on our first trek! I have been itching to get a good pic of me cliff jumping, and this is indeed fits the bill!
Yet another pic that courtney the photographer took while on our trek. She has been doing an amazing job, and there are plenty of great photos we have yet to publish.
Courtney and I have been doing great and are off on another trek tomorrow. Sorry for the lack of communication with the outside world, but we are usually off in the backwoods having a blast! Hope all is well back home!
Thursday, December 4, 2008
We all live in a turquoise MPV... a turquoise MPV... a turquoise MPV
Hello everyone! As the title implies... courney and I have succeded in purchasing a vehicle and are now cruising around the beautiful country of New Zealand! I'm going to have to make this a short post because we are on a bit of a time crunch, and internet time is quite expensive here in the first world.
The first several days in NZ were spent in Aukland trying to secure a vehicle for the journey and contacting family and friends back home. We spent our last night in a proper bed six days ago and traded in the hostel/cheap hotel life for a bed in the back of a car. This will be our home base for a couple of months. So far it has been working out excellently! We wake up to the sun rising (because we don't yet have curtains in the vehicle), cruise around, find awesome hikes, have picnics in amazing places, have fires to wind down from the long day in the sun, and watch the stars for a bit before calling it a day. Needless to say, I love it! We just took our first shower of this second leg of the journey yesterday. Before that we took a dip in the river to clean some of that sweat off from all that hiking. The simple life at its finest!
We are now on the coromandel penninsula on the north island, and are headed south to do some backcountry "tramping" for a few weeks. We then plan to rent a canoe and float a river in the southern part of the north island (hopefully we don't die). It is supposedly quite safe.
Thats about it... life on the road, living out of a car in NZ. What could be any better? I don't know.
We will try to post some pictures as soon as possible. Hope all is well back in the states!
The first several days in NZ were spent in Aukland trying to secure a vehicle for the journey and contacting family and friends back home. We spent our last night in a proper bed six days ago and traded in the hostel/cheap hotel life for a bed in the back of a car. This will be our home base for a couple of months. So far it has been working out excellently! We wake up to the sun rising (because we don't yet have curtains in the vehicle), cruise around, find awesome hikes, have picnics in amazing places, have fires to wind down from the long day in the sun, and watch the stars for a bit before calling it a day. Needless to say, I love it! We just took our first shower of this second leg of the journey yesterday. Before that we took a dip in the river to clean some of that sweat off from all that hiking. The simple life at its finest!
We are now on the coromandel penninsula on the north island, and are headed south to do some backcountry "tramping" for a few weeks. We then plan to rent a canoe and float a river in the southern part of the north island (hopefully we don't die). It is supposedly quite safe.
Thats about it... life on the road, living out of a car in NZ. What could be any better? I don't know.
We will try to post some pictures as soon as possible. Hope all is well back in the states!
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