Adventuriety
One of the lessons that we are learning on our adventure is that as much as one can research on the internet, there are still the “locals’ favorites” or the things that are so buried in the web that you never notice them, or you read about something, but don’t realize what you have found; that it is fun and great and not to be missed. ...
Read More
Adventuriety
New Zealand is an outdoor enthusiasts dream come true because there are infinite epic outdoor adventures to choose from and today was definitely epic. Scott found a doozie for us by the name of Mt. Alfred. He started off by telling me that the estimated time was 6-8 hours, but he read a blog that said it could be done in a little over four hours. The...
Read More
Adventuriety
It has been cloudy and stormy and beautiful here in Queenstown. It seems like every type of weather is just another way for the mountains to showcase their magnificence. We needed exercise today, but there was little chance of a hike to a view and so our trusty leader decided that we would retrace part of the Ben Lomond track and summit Bowen Peak, another...
Read More
Adventuriety
We traveled around the North Island of New Zealand for a week and now we are spending some time catching up on school and enjoying the very popular Queenstown and our first look at the South Island. Queenstown is an adrenaline junkies dream come true, summer or winter. If you can jump off of it, climb up, down, around or through it, bike, paraglide or...
Read More
Adventuriety
We planned one week on the North Island of New Zealand. We wanted to show the kids some of the places we visited on our honeymoon and then see something new. Looking around on the internet, Scott found a very interesting beach called Hot Beach (more on that later) but it looked intriguing enough to plan a few days around it since there were plenty of...
Read More
Adventuriety / Inspirietry
We left the magical Bay of Islands and drove towards Waipoua State Forest, another place that we had visited years ago. The kids have seen our giant California trees, but we wanted them to see New Zealand’s behemoths, the Kauri trees. photo by Grant A major threat to the Kauri, identified in 2008, is kauri dieback, a disease caused by a fungus-like water mold that attacks...
Read More
Adventuriety
Scott and I spent a night in Bay of Islands on our honeymoon and have three vivid memories from our visit which is amazing to me because we have no pictures to jog these memories. The first memory involves a one man catamaran and some uncooperative wind. You have to remember that Bay of Islands is absolutely beautiful and pristine and it’s mostly about the water. The...
Read More
Adventuriety
Scott and I have been married a few years. We went to Australia and New Zealand on our honeymoon and overheard a couple at one of the places we stayed talking about how they couldn’t believe that they were already celebrating their 10th Anniversary by returning to the place that they had honeymooned. We thought that sounded like a good idea and now all of...
Read More
Adventuriety / Domesticiety
We spent two weeks in beautiful, charming San Sebastian and it wasn’t long enough. We loved our apartment, not a block from the sea, and our sweet and helpful apartment manager, Ane. We hiked a lot and also spent time enjoying the city, food and a few other things. Ashley took a surfing lesson and spent as many minutes as she could physically endure swimming...
Read More
Adventuriety
Hernio is an iconic summit and the highest peak of the mountain range located right in the heart of Basque Country and very popular with the Gipuzkoans . In case you are wondering, Gipuzkoa is the name of the province and it is the most Basque of the whole area, with half of the population speaking Basque. San Sebastian is the capital of this province....
Read More