Our plans, decisions, and adventures
Christchurch was supposed to be our last stop in New Zealand, but not for another two months. Following a two-week house sit in Christchurch, we planned a two-week loop around the central and southern parts of the South Island before completing a three-week house sit on the coast and then returning to fly out of... Continue Reading →
After crossing Cook Strait, we picked up a rental car in Picton. We planned five nights to loop around through Nelson and Blenheim, and back to Picton before heading south to our housesit in Christchurch. From Picton, we drove to Nelson along the beautiful winding Queen Charlotte Drive. We stopped at a few viewpoints as... Continue Reading →
From Wellington on the North Island, we took a ferry across Cook Strait to Picton, on the South Island. There are two companies that provide transit across Cook Strait: Interislander and Blueridge. We booked on Interislander based on sailing times and availability, but you can select based on ship as well. We had read that... Continue Reading →
Following our North Island Loop, we returned our rental car at the Auckland airport and flew to Wellington at the southern tip of the North Island. We had originally considered the train for that leg and then changed our thinking to the equally-long-but-much-cheaper bus. When we revisited the bus route before we booked, we realized... Continue Reading →
From our last stop on our Northland Loop, we headed south of Auckland to complete a two-week North Island loop. Warning: This is a long post. We were on the go the whole time we were travelling this loop and didn't stop anywhere long enough to write the post. So, you are reading all of... Continue Reading →
We left Snells Beach and headed north to do a four-day circle of Northland, the northernmost region of New Zealand. Though we had planned on visiting several interesting and important stops, the journey between them was filled with oohs and aahs as we encountered breathtaking scenery at every turn. Our route (red circles are our... Continue Reading →
We were incredibly lucky to have secured a house sit in the village of Snells Beach taking care of a beautiful new home and its gardens, and a gentle border collie named Pip. Sunrise in Snells BeachLooking out over Snells Beach to Kawau Bay A windy day in the baySailing, sailing Our first views of... Continue Reading →
We arrived quite late at night, so our Uber drive into the CBD (Central Business District) from the airport offered little in the way of orientation to the city. Since we had flown from Hawaii, our time change was only an hour (though we lost a day thanks to crossing the international date line) and,... Continue Reading →
When we were booking flights out of Vancouver for our trip to New Zealand we found that almost all of the flights went via Hawai'i. Having never been to Hawai'i (possibly the only West Coast Canadians who haven't), this seemed like a perfect time to build in a stopover. We had grand plans for a... Continue Reading →
Our final stop in our cross-country Mexico trip was Puerto Vallarta (PV), on the West Coast. We took a bus for the 5-hour trip from Guadalajara, and then a 30-minute Uber to get to our hotel right in town. We chose to stay downtown near the Zona Romantica so we could walk to almost everything... Continue Reading →
Though we travelled through Guadalajara on our way from San Miguel de Allende to Ajijic, we had not stopped for a visit. We had allocated five nights in the city. With arrival and departure, this only gave us four full days to explore, reduced to three since one of those days would be a day... Continue Reading →
Just left: Christchurch, NZ
Now: Vancouver, BC, Canada
Up next: Calgary, AB, Canada
