It's good to be home

After a full week of being back in the US, we can safely say that it's good to be home. We're really enjoying having a kitchen and bathroom to ourselves, a comfortable bed, and even a couch and TV. We're starting to make the rounds and catching up with friends. Lots of stuff happened while we were away!

Job interviews start next week. Time to get back to real life.

Our Trip in Review

Total distance driven: ~19,300 miles or 77% of the earth's circumference!
Flat tires: 1
Traffic tickets: 0 [whoo!]
Oil changes: 4
Gas burned while driving: ~712 gallons [27 mpg overall, not bad!]

Cheapest trip portion in $/day: US & Canada! [big thanks to friends & family for letting us crash on your couches and eat your food]
Most expensive trip portion in $/day: Peru [lots of organized tours]
Worst budget overrun: US/Canada, 9% over high estimate
Most accurate budget: Airfare, 0.3% under estimate
Overall budget: 4.9% over low estimate, 7.4% below high estimate [it worked! shocking!]

Favorite foreign country: New Zealand
Best hikes: Mt Zion (Olympic Peninsula, WA), Illecillewaet Glacier (Glacier NP, BC), Key Summit (Fiordland, NZ)
Hardest hikes: Illecillewaet (BC), Pasachoa (Ecuador)
Favorite bird: Pukeko (NZ)
Worst insect: Sandfly (NZ)
Best food: Cheddar beer soup with Stout at Full Sail (OR)
Worst food poisoning: Copacabana, Bolivia
Most over-hyped locations: Idaho "wilderness" and the Nazca lines
Most unexpectedly awesome locations: Mt. Hood (OR), Glacier NP (BC), Cherokee Territory (NC), Ecuador (all of it)

Things we'd do differently:
-Less driving, more hiking in the US
-Get off the Gringo Trail in Peru
-Don't eat in Copacabana
-Take an extra week of Spanish classes in Ecuador

Overall it was a good trip. We were really excited to plan it, it was fun while we were there, and we're really glad to be back. Definitely a very positive life experience for both of us. We feel extremely lucky to have had the opportunity to take such an extended "holiday".

New Zealand trip stats

Distance driven: 8500 km (5282 miles)
Tyres purchased for the car: 5
Personal property pilfered: milk from the fridge in Auckland :(

National Parks visited: 8
Alpine crossings: 5 (4 in the car, 1 on foot)
Glaciers visited: 3

Farmer's Markets visited: 3
Farmer's Markets visited in the rain: 3
Times snorkeling plans foiled by rain: 10
Days spent watching it rain (and nothing else): 5
Flooded bridges forded with a donut tire: 1

Eggs consumed: 150 (food is expensive)
Breweries visited: 6
Wineries visited: 8
Honey consumed: 4 lbs (manuka, rewarewa, and tawari)

Kea spotted at a distance: 4
Kea seen close up: 0 (total bummer!)

Back in the USA

We're back! We just went through the giant pile of junk mail and gave the shredder a work out, found the plates and glasses, and eventually turned up sheets for the bed. We think it's good to be back, but we haven't really gotten settled yet.

Time to start in on the list of restaurants we missed!

Last Hurrah: Tiritiri Matangi Island and St Patrick's Day in Auckland

After five depressing days in Auckland trying and failing to sell our car while we had the best weather of the entire trip taunting us, we finally sold Larry on Friday. We immediately got tickets to Tiritiri Matangi Island, a bird sanctuary on an offshore island about an hour by boat from Auckland. The wind was high and the sea was up on our trip out, resulting in a lot of sick passengers, but we were far from ill and had a nice ride out to the island. We opted for a lackluster guided tour for the first 90 minutes or so, had lunch near the lighthouse, and then wandered around the island on our own for a few hours. We spotted all the birds the island had to offer, save the kiwi and blue penguins which you can only see at night. We even saw two pairs of kokako, a super-rare blue bird with a haunting call. The "we thought these were extinct" takahe hung out near the visitor center, and one is even an opportunistic food thief. We saw saddlebacks aplenty, hihi/stitchbirds (they only exist on 3 offshore islands), whiteheads, bellbirds, tui, fantails, pukeko, parrots, and ducks. After leaving the stream-of-consciousness chatter of our fellow tour folk, we got to listen to the woods and the constant chatter of birds. Very cool. Tiritiri is highly recommended to those who might venture down here--book in advance and you can stay overnight and see the penguins and listen to the kiwi.

The rain held off, though we could see if off the coast and the wind was blowing it right to us. Somehow we stayed dry (other than that spray wave that soaked Hilary head to toe on the boat) and after washing up, went down to the nearest (and very crowded) Irish bar for St Patrick's Day. We got (really cold) Guinness and some beef stew, very tasty. The cold beer is a bit of a sin, but everywhere in NZ seems to pour Guinness near freezing. You'd think the English Isles heritage would have taught them how to pour a beer... Anyway, we left that bar after our beer and stew since the band was playing only songs from a high school dance. And not just any high school, our high school i.e. mid 90's "lite rock" stuff. Not bad songs per se, but the lack of diversity was annoying.

We walked down the street to the Windsor Castle, a less Irish place but one that had a band with a broader understanding of music. We got another (super cold) Guinness and some fish & chips. Yum. After that we headed back to our last night in Auckland and NZ.

This morning we jammed our bags full of all our worldly possessions, and now it's just a few hours until we catch our bus to the airport. Crazy that it's all over.

Whangarei in the Rain

We spent almost a week in Whangarei at the Whangarei Falls Motor Camp. Quite a nice place, cheap rooms and a comfy tv room. We got ourselves a room on arrival since it was raining (surprise!) and it was supposed to rain more the next day and night. We figured we'd move out to the car again once the weather dried out. While we had the room, we took the time to empty it out, give it a scrub, and renew the WOF (warrant of fitness) which expired at the end of the week.

It never stopped raining. The Metservice forecast kept telling us it would be things like "partly cloudy" or "chance shower", but it rained constantly all week. Not a strong rain, but the misty drip kind of rain with clouds only a handful of meters off the ground. We had planned to visit the Whangarei Heads for the views of the mountain spit and the ocean/harbor, but with the low fog-clouds and rain we never got to go. We did spend a lot of time on the trail from Whangarei Falls (a block or so from the camp) that leads down into town along the river, passing the falls of course and then through a kauri park. We walked along the trail most days (with Hil doing some trail running), even in the rain, and were glad for our room at the end of the day.

Whangarei itself was a nice town as well. We hung out there while the car was being checked over, and went into town a few times when we got sick of sitting in the room in the rain. We went to the rose garden and adjacent fernery and explored several of the local art shops for the last of the souvenir gifts.  We also spent a lot of time drinking "flat white" coffees in a couple of coffee shops downtown while it, you guessed it, rained outside the window.

And that was pretty much it for the second trip to Northland: rain, rain, and more rain. Back to Auckland to sell the car...

Coromandel, the Firth of Thames, and back to Northland

We drove up the west coast of the Coromandel this time and arrived in Coromandel Town (often it's just called Coromandel, but the "Town" is added to remove confusion). Perhaps not surprisingly, it rained. We hung out in the very convenient covered picnic area, chatted with folks biking around in the rain (poor souls), and finished the last of our Marlborough wine. Not a bad day after all!

The next day it was cloudy, crazy windy, but not raining. We took the narrow and winding road lined with gnarled pohutakawa up the coast toward the tip of the peninsula, having to stop for about 10 minutes at one point while some trucks added fresh gravel and a roller tamped it down along the one-lane road. We also encountered fresh gravel that had not been rolled, which was a bit of a slippery ride. Oh and this road is right on the coast, with a friendly cliff dropping into the water often only a few inches from your tires. Exciting! We got to Port Jackson at the north end and continued along the road intending to get to the coastal walkway. However we found a ford of which we could not determine the depth. It had been raining, remember, so we decided to just turn around and go back to Port Jackson. On our way back we passed the shuttle bus that takes tourists to the walkway from the Thames area; it was equipped with a snorkel. Next time we need one of those. Anyway we got back to Port Jackson and parked at the beach, where we ate lunch took a walk along the beach. Our way back was fun as we had to close our eyes to keep out the whipping sand. We eventually made it back, and got the pleasure of driving back down the loose gravel road at the edge of the cliff. The road crew had made good progress though, and the really slippery spots had been packed down a bit. We did feel really bad for the motorcycle guy that was coming down the road. On the plus side, the views were gorgeous and this bit of coastal driving was Aaron's favorite in all of New Zealand. Highly recommended and better than the Bay of Islands or the South Island West Coast. (we've included a picture of our car, "Larry", hanging out on the coast here as we get ready to sell him next week)

From the tip of the peninsula we made our way down to Opoutere, to the same YHA we had stayed at before. Our first order of business was to go out and get more cockles, though unfortunately our visit coincided with low tides around dawn and dusk so we didn't get to eat them until after dinner. The cockles were much lower quality than last time--smaller and with more barnacles. The ones we collected still tasted great though. We walked through the hostel's bush walk which had a great variety of trees and birds right next to the camp.  Hilary spent some time jumping on the trampoline, and was less successful with the walking stilts... gotta love Opoutere.

The next day we took a walk along the beach, which borders a shorebird preserve (the nesting sites above high tide are fenced off but the beach is accessible). The morning was decent weather and we had a nice walk. After lunch we went out to the "summit" hike up to the hill overlooking the hostel and the estuary. The tops of the hill is an old pa [fortified village] site, and you can still see where they dumped cockle and pipi shells. It started to rain on us near the top of the hill, but it was just a light rain and the views were nice.

That night, and all the next day, was the BIG STORM. The weather service had been putting out warnings for most of the week and the computer models basically predicted Armageddon over both islands. The hostel management offered us tent/campervan folk the option of using their empty dorm rooms for the night to ride out the storm indoors; we didn't but it was very nice of them. Turns out the Coromandel got mostly grazed. It rained all right, but it wasn't too bad. The gale force winds did show up the next morning, and blew rain bands at the edge of the storm through every 15 minutes or so. But the big rain was near the Strait, and boy were we glad to not be in Whanganui, Wellington, or Blenheim for the storm. It was a good day to stay in and watch The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played with Fire (the Swedish ones). We don't have the last one, unfortunately.

The day after the storm the weather was actually not too bad. We drove around to Miranda, on the other side of the Firth of Thames. This is the area where EcoQuest is based, and Hilary spent a lot of time here during her program. We visited the park where they did a lot of walking, running, and learning how to drive a stick. The trail she used to run on had been redone, which was sad.

After our park walk we went to the Miranda Shorebird Center, where Hilary had done some work with EcoQuest and the guy behind the counter knew a bunch of the folks she remembered. We rented some $5 binoculars and took the 2 km walk to the hides near the shore. Lots of birds, and it was super fun to have binoculars to get a nice close view.

Back at the holiday park, we played petanque and jumped on the trampoline. Fun! We also got free access to the hot pools fed from nice sulfury springs and spent some time hanging out in there, though it was only 38 C and not hot enough for Hilary.

The next day we took the coast road up the Firth and then through Auckland, stopping eventually outside Warkworth in the town of Sandspit. After getting a spot at the camp, we drove a short way up the coast to Goat Island, where there is a marine reserve and a popular snorkeling area. We rented wetsuits since the water is still only 19 C (brrr!). Turns out Hilary had been here before too, although it's been very built up in the last 9 years. It was wickedly busy, with a lame glass-bottom boat (the water is only a few meters deep...) and tons of kids in some sort of class. We snorkeled around for awhile with the tide bringing in some lovely cold water. The conditions were pretty crappy; the bottom was very stirred up and there was mostly just kelp and snapper. We did see a bunch of leatherjackets, but the promised eagle and sting rays never appeared. Oh and it was super cold.

Back in Sandspit we checked out the cute "frontier town" full of old cars and shops full of vintage stuff. The holiday park is actually rather nice, though a little old-looking. We camped out in the vintage theater-seating TV room and picked Shrek 2 out of their selection of G-rated movies.

From Sandspit we continued north to Whangarei. If the weather cooperates, we'll do some more snorkeling and/or diving along the Tutukaka coast or the Poor Knights before we leave.