I promised I’d balance out my Debbie Downer posts, so here are some happy scenes from Danville! As I said, we have some really awesome friends here and have been squeezing every droplet out of our free time for some fun, despite the surrounding drama. There’s been lots of outdoor recreation, weekly 1/2 priced Sushi…
So it’s pretty suffice to say that since we returned from New Zealand, we’ve had a black cloud following us around, or maybe it is just reality overcompensating for our 6-month escape. Someone said this line to us the other day and it just about sums it up: “Wish in one hand, shit in the…
If this week were not emotional enough, we have other bad news. Mr. McKinley passed away Saturday night. McKinley, who would have been 11 this June. McKinley, who was part of our Danville story as we adopted him in December 2004, shortly after moving to town. McKinley, who was my best coworker and kept me…
We’ve been in Danville, VA, since May 6. Danville, for those who don’t know, is one of our many home bases. Danville is a small town of roughly 40,000 people on the border of North Carolina. Manufacturing, tobacco and textiles were its main industries for much of the 20th century, with a key business being…
Earlier this week, we left Colorado and landed on the East Coast, specifically in Virginia. I am long overdue for a post on our current and future plans, but unless you want some nonsensical words strung together, you get a smattering of pictures from the rest of our time in Colorado. J’s youngest sister has…
Current mood: missing New Zealand. Seriously, it is SO disappointing to be “back to life, back to reality.” It doesn’t help that everyday I do a little organizing/labeling/editing of our 1,000+ pictures and am instantly transported back to some point during our 5-month adventure. I find myself day dreaming and night dreaming of New Zealand. …
We made the most of our 5 days in Sydney, taking all modes of transportation to get around (including walking of course!) and seeing a variety of sights and tourist attractions. We rented an AirBnB in Darlinghurst, which was walking distance from the downtown. It was a tiny studio apartment, but much, much better than…
Well, our 5-month New Zealand grand adventure has come to an end. We flew out on Friday morning and are now are in Sydney, Australia. This was after a brief “oh crap moment when the airline said, “do you have a visa?” And we said, “no, we are only in Australia for 5 days.” And…
Dunedin was never a planned destination for our post-Te Araroa travels. Dunedin was the Plan B when Mother Nature decided New Zealand should have the shortest fall ever and go straight into winter, thus axing our the last of our backpacking plans. We went from the snowy West Coast mountains to the rainy East Coast…
We spent the weekend in Te Anau, gateway to Fiordland National Park and Milford Sound. We stayed right on the lake, which is gorgeous in itself. Te Anau Lake is the second largest lake in NZ and the largest freshwater body of water in the Southern Hemisphere. Our main activity in Te Anau was to…
We scheduled in a little R&R during our post Te Araroa weeks in New Zealand and decided the perfect place to recharge our batteries would be at our favorite hostel, Adventure Queenstown. We booked 3 nights at the hostel in Queenstown. Queenstown is the adventure capital of the world, with opportunities to mountain bike, skydive,…
I plan to write more about our overall impressions and feelings about the Te Araroa, as well as some tips for people considering it, but for now, it’s just the facts. Anyone who knows me knows I keep track of as many trail statistics as I can! So here you go, the Te Araroa in…
A second priority in our post-TA exploring was Mt. Cook National Park and we ended up spending 2 days/3 nights there over the Easter weekend. More than one third of the park has permanent snow & glacial ice and is surrounded by 22 mountains over 9,000 feet, including Mt. Cook, the tallest peak in NZ…
Stewart Island (Rakiura) is New Zealand’s “third” largest island. Most of the island is protected as Rakiura National Park. It boasts unspoiled wilderness, as well as cranked up birdsong … But the biggest reason people come to the island is for kiwi spotting. Stewart Island is NZ’s last major, stable population of wild kiwi. Kiwis,…
Before we leave for Stewart Island, I wanted to give you a few statistics. I will do a grand summary of the entire trail shortly, but here’s the South Island summary! 1308 kilometers / 812 miles ***this is what the map says, but our GPS shows that we did 1407 kilometers!! 56 days 3 zero days…
It is done. We have walked the entire length of New Zealand from Cape Reigna to Bluff. (If you would like to start from the beginning, click here.) Thank you to EVERYONE who supported us, whether in the form of encouraging words or housing/feeding us … and of course our awesome gear sponsors! We could…
Hello from Invercargill! We are at kilometer 2962, which means we are one single day and about 30 kilometers from Bluff, the southern terminus of the Te Araroa. Holy cannoli. I can’t even begin to process that we are just about done with walking the entire length of New Zealand. We will reach Bluff on…
Hello from Te Anau, where we hitched 30K and are just resupplying quickly, then heading back to the trail the same day (although it is threatening rain out and very tempting to stay!). No shower, no bed, just a town meal and groceries. You can tell the end is near. We are at kilometer 2765,…
We thoroughly enjoyed our zero day in Queenstown and will be hitting the trail Wednesday for the last 325 kilometers (roughly 200 miles) left of the trail! Holy cow!! The home stretch is real! We mostly took care of town tasks and relaxed around the awesome hostel (Adventure Queenstown). It was pretty chilly out and…
Hello from Adventure Queenstown Hostel! Queenstown is a BIG town, and we are actually taking our second South Island zero day here because there is a Te Araroa party taking place here on St. Patrick’s Day. our timing to get here worked out perfectly! I will update about our Queenstown time before we hike on, so…