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 →
Northland, North Island
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 →
Snells Beach, North Island
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 →
Auckland
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 →
Hawai’i: What a stopover!
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 →
Puerto Vallarta
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 →
Guadalajara
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 →
Ajijic
Noise was the theme of our time in Ajijic. Most of the time it was happy noises, sometimes just a little too much (or too late or too early), and once it was joyful noise that soothed our souls. We bused directly from our last house sit in San Miguel de Allende to another housesit... Continue Reading →
San Miguel de Allende: Again
After Halloween and Dia de Los Muertos, life in San Miguel de Allende (SMA) settled down to a pleasant pace. We were house sitting in a three-level-plus-rooftop home a short walk from el centro, the historic town center. Our charge was an oh-so-easy-to-care-for meowless (but purrful) senior cat. Other than keeping her well fed and... Continue Reading →
Halloween, Día de Muertos, and an art walk
What a weekend of colour! Halloween We arrived back in San Miguel de Allende just in time to see how Halloween was celebrated. We had been told that candy is distributed in Jardin Allende so we walked up at dusk to check it out. Since Halloween is the day before Día de Muertos (Day of... Continue Reading →
Guanajuato: Hillsides and tunnels
With five days between house sits in San Miguel de Allende, we headed to Guanajuato, about 1 1/2 hours away by bus. We booked four nights in an AirBnB just off of Plaza San Fernando, one of two main plazas in the city. Guanajuato is built up into the hills on two sides of a... Continue Reading →