Touring West Northland, New Zealand

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After exploring the east coast of Northland, we headed to the west coast. We first stopped in a town called Opononi on the Hokianga Harbour to use their facilities. Upon parking, we noticed a statue of a young boy with a dolphin. Apparently, the town’s legacy is that in the summer of 1956, a friendly dolphin, Opo, befriended many of the towns people. When Opo died, they buried him in town complete with a tombstone and a local artist created the statue for the towns center.

We continued down the coast to a scenic viewpoint right off the highway. After a quick walk, we had beautiful views of the Tasman Sea, the Hokianga Harbour, sand dunes across the harbor, and the towns of Opononi and Omapere. Just stunning! Continue reading

Scuba Diving the Poor Knights Islands, New Zealand

IMG_3832For my birthday, Sara took us on our first non-tropical dive. She decided on diving the Poor Knights Islands using the only company that charters out there, Dive Tutukaka. The Poor Knights Islands are off the east coast north of Auckland. It has been named one of the top ten dive sites in the world and one of the best non-tropical dive sites.

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Touring East Northland, New Zealand

IMG_3724After a red eye flight to Auckland, we chose to camp our first night in the city. Just across the bay in Takapuna, our new app told us there was a campsite on the water. As we pulled in, there were sailboats heeled over, kiteboarders soaring over the calm water, and campers enjoying the day. We knew we were in the right spot. Unfortunately, the site was fully booked for the night. We received directions for another campsite in town and headed over to checkin. The other campsite was okay – there were good facilities but I guess we knew what we were missing. We spent the afternoon organizing our new campervan home and walked to a grocery store nearby. On the walk, we couldn’t help but pause to appreciate the nicely paved roads and side walks, the green grass, the crisp blue sky, and the neatly laid powerlines which was such a contrast to Southeast Asia. It was nice to be here. That night, we had our last meal out – which was at a brewery, Mac’s Brewbar, with our favorite foods! The following morning, we went back to Takapuna park next to the beautiful campsite to have breakfast before hitting the road north. When we arrived, we were excited to see free yoga in the park had just begun. We jumped in, stretched and took the opportunity to get in the mindset for camping in New Zealand. To top it off, as the relaxing hour completed, Continue reading

Three day layover in Hong Kong

IMG_3267After a short flight from Ho Chi Minh City, we took a bus from the Hong Kong Airport to the area where our pre-booked hotel was located. Our maps pinpointed the hotel in the middle of a city block. We got off the bus, looked around, and only saw rows of shops. Nothing resembled a hotel or guesthouse and meanwhile many Indians were asking us if we needed a guesthouse, a watch or even a SIM card for our phone. Will suggested looking down a narrow alley and see if we could find anything. Down the walkway filled with shops, we found an elevator bank and noticed some of the words matched the address from our listing. We got in the elevator trying to get to a floor we thought might match the address but only even floors were listed. After going back down, we realized there was another elevator with odd floors listed and it even had the name of our guesthouse on the floor listing. We went up to the 13th floor and Continue reading