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Mandee
Mandee

Mandee

So, Andy and Maddie are having a midlife crisis - quit our jobs, quit the UK and travelling around the world in a tent. Some exciting and difficult times ahead, but ach, it'll be reet! Read more🇬🇧United Kingdom
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  • MandeeAch it’ll be reetMandee

    Whakatane & White Island

    January 8, 2018 in New Zealand ⋅ ⛅ 10 °C

    We treated ourselves to a trip to NZ's only active marine volcano, White Island/Whakaari. What a fantastic experience to actually walk on an active volcano, watching where we put our feet so that we didn't fall through into hot molten rock! It was an incredibly hot day (NZ is hot...) and the volcano made it even hotter. We couldn't imagine being one of the miners who worked there last century! Had a really nice swim off the boat afterwards to cool down then another great 2 hour boat trip back to the mainland - a huge pod of dolphins followed up for 15-20 minutes which was amazing to see!Read more

  • MandeeAch it’ll be reetMandee

    Coromandel Peninsula

    January 2, 2018 in New Zealand ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    Coromandel was where we weathered one of the biggest summer storms of the year. We unknowingly headed up to one of the most isolated, remote parts of Coromandel the day before a huge storm hit! Right to where the road runs out... We had one beautiful day up at Fletcher Bay then were warned 'either leave now, or tie your tent down tight and don't even think about driving that road tomorrow!'. We went out for a quick walk in the morning thinking it didn't look too bad... then we got soaked. And soaked some more. Then a bit more for good measure. We dumped our soaking wet clothes in the tent porch and then sat in the car for the rest of the day. Many many hours spent trapped in that car!
    We got up the next day after quite a lot of strong wind that night, only to find that the road no longer existed and had been over run by the extremely high tide! Luckily, there was a little back road that we could take, but it was a long slog avoiding rocks, moving fallen branches and playing chicken with the waves coming over the road! Goodbye Coromandel, it's been an experience!    Read more

  • MandeeAch it’ll be reetMandee

    Northland part 2 - new year

    December 31, 2017 in New Zealand ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    We decided to spend new year back up in Waipu - we didn't really have anything organised because we were waiting on the car and NZ is notoriously busy at New Year. Waipu caves has a free campsite and it's in the middle of nowhere so we thought we'd give it a try. Ended up getting quite drunk in a car park while all the teenagers partied in the caves.. an odd start to 2018! We headed into Waipu for the new year highland games the next day. Great fun until the rain washed the whole thing out at about 1pm!Read more

  • MandeeAch it’ll be reetMandee

    Raglan

    December 22, 2017 in New Zealand ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    We decided to spend a week in Raglan over Christmas at a really nice hostel. Christmas will always be a bit weird, away from home in a hot country, but we thought we'd just go for full weirdness and surf on Christmas day! We spent the week surfing and drinking in the hostel - Andy got on really well with it and was standing up pretty quickly, but Maddie took a bit longer to pick it up.. A bit longer turned into never as you can see from the pictures.. Oh well, still really good fun though and surfing on Christmas day took away some of our homesickness and we managed to video chat with family. Although Maddie had a big red tomato face from too long surfing in the sun - I've never had sunburn so bad that it prompted gasps whenever I walked into a room.Read more

  • MandeeAch it’ll be reetMandee

    West coast, Northland

    December 20, 2017 in New Zealand ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    Our next stop was a long drive down to Rawene which is were we would be camping for the night. There was a long drive down and a wait for the ferry, but a swimming pool was waiting for us at the end, bliss. We visited the huge and stately kauri trees the next day. Tane Mahuta is really quite awe-inspiring, especially when you hear the rather beautiful Maori creation story it is part of. Kauri aren't as big as the redwoods we saw in California, but they somehow seem more imposing and grand.
    We stayed in relative luxury at the Trounson Top 10 so we could take advantage of their kiwi tour, but we told it wasn't running because of lack of interest! But they did give us a DIY kiwi hunting kit and at 10pm, we set out for the reserve with a Dutch father and son who also wanted to see a kiwi. We set off on the boardwalk through the reserve and shone our huge red light into the bushes, keeping as quiet as possible. And after 10 minutes or so we were rewarded by seeing a little kiwi rustling around in the bushes in front of us! We must have watched it for 2 minutes or more and it came within a few metres of us! It was the only kiwi we saw that night, but we had an amazing time creeping through the dark, listening to kiwi and ruru calls. Apparently very few kiwis (people) have ever seen a kiwi (bird) in the wild, so we feel incredibly lucky to have experienced it. Probably one of our best evenings spend in NZ!    Read more

  • MandeeAch it’ll be reetMandee

    North coast, Northland

    December 19, 2017 in New Zealand ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C

    We were excited to make the long drive to the most northerly part of the island; Cape Reinga and Spirits Bay. We pitched up on the DOC site and had the most beautiful sunset on the beach. Day four and finally Cape Reinga where the Tasman sea meets the Pacific Ocean. You can even see the rough waters where the two oceans collide. The Maori see this place as where the spirits depart this world for the next (a place called Hawaiki, the former land of the ancestors). We really felt this was a special, spiritual place and could have sat there for ours. I think we were also quite lucky to go at a relatively quiet time - apparently the place gets overrun with tourists which I think would ruin the atmosphere! The day turned incredibly hot, but we couldn't resist (well me, Andy) a body board down the massive dunes at Te Paki. Maddie was scared at first, but eventually she loved body boarding down the 100ft dunes!Read more

  • MandeeAch it’ll be reetMandee

    East coast, Northland

    December 17, 2017 in New Zealand ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    We headed up the east coast and first we stopped in a place called Waipu, a very interesting Scottish town which was settled by a group of clans in 1834. They left Scotland in 1800 and first stopped in Nova Scotia, this place was bitterly cold so they then settled in Australia. Again this place had its problems with land costs, so they set sale again and after just over 30yrs they ended up in Waipu on the east coast of the Northland. We eventually set up camp in Ruakaka and both had a swim and body board on the beautiful beach. Our second day we headed for the Waipu caves to see the glow worms, we had to take torches and wade through the water with the eels. The glow worms were so cool, it took some time for the eyes to adjust though. Now time for a trek up Mt Manaia which is on the Whangarei heads. It was boiling and there were so many steps, but the views from the top were awesome. We were so hot that a quick drive down to Ocean Beach was needed, although Maddie nearly drowned in the big waves. Back in the car and off again to see the Whangarei falls which were very pretty. The mermaid pools were the last thing to do, the beach was in the top ten of New Zealand, but we had to get the tide right and once past the beach at the hill, we had to climb over and head down to the rock pools. The pools were green and crystal clear. We dived off the rocks and then eventually the tide came in and we trekked back over the hill and waded through the sea. Our plan for the evening after all this was to stay at the Aroha Island eco reserve so we could see Kiwis, but we weren't offered the red lamp (white light blinds them) and spent a fruitless hour floundering in the dark and getting spooked by every noise! Beautiful campsite though and we could hear the kiwis, rurus and all sorts of birds singing away!

    Day three and after Rainbow Falls we visited Mahinepua Bay and the headlands with spectacular views north and just as good south (and east, and west..). We swam in our own private bay then went back to the beach for a proper swim. Much needed as it was boiling and the sand burnt our feet. We bobbed about for hours in what was as close to paradise as I think you'll get. Unfortunately, we were rewarded with sunburn and after giving a baby hedgehog some water, we headed off to the next adventure!    Read more

  • MandeeAch it’ll be reetMandee

    Northland

    December 16, 2017 in New Zealand ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

    We picked up the hire car near the airport in Auckland and headed for the Northland. We had six days to head up the east coast to the north and back down the west coast. The hire car turned out to be reliable, but a very used car! Six days turned out to be too short for the Northland - we could have spent weeks here. I think this is probably our favourite part of New Zealand - the coast and beaches are just beautiful and in parts it's very quiet and isolated. And so much history that we never even got a chance to explore!Read more

  • MandeeAch it’ll be reetMandee

    Auckland

    December 12, 2017 in New Zealand ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

    A 13hr flight from LA and we finally landed in Auckland and after waiting for the bio lab to vet our tent, we jumped in the car with Jon from the airbnb and headed to the house. Jon and Evelyn are the most amazing people we could possibly meet on the start of our NZ tour, they even had us back after Raglan and helped us buy our car. Their house was amazing with a swimming pool to cool off in on the hot days. We would be in Auckland for four days and Jon would drop us at the station to catch the train into the city in a couple of occasions. We went up the Sky Tower one afternoon and the views were amazing. You can see for miles. A ferry trip over to Devonport was also a great way of seeing the city from over the water. Once off at Devonport, we visited Cheltenham beach for a swim, which in the heat was most welcome. The coastal gun batteries from ww2 are on the bluffs between Cheltenham and Devonport which was really cool. From Cheltenham beach we could see the volcanic island Rangitoto, so we decided to take a day trip there. The day trip ended up being a huge hike in the boiling heat and being volcanic Island, it felt twice as hot! The views at the top of Auckland and the surrounding areas were amazing though. On the way down we went via the lighthouse and took a quick swim by the beach. All in all, we had a great time in Auckland and we're very grateful to Jon and Evelyn for helping us with places to go and also for having us back between Christmas and new year, so we could buy a car and start our journey of NZ with more ease.Read more

  • MandeeAch it’ll be reetMandee

    Santa Monica, LA

    December 5, 2017 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    Just a short trip here to see the Cheesecake Factory .. oh and Andy's niece Bethany :) we were lucky to have our very own semi native Santa Monican tour guide and chauffeur who took us to see all the best bits of LA (that weren't on fire), with YMCA and other 70-80s hits on full volume, windows down. David, you taught her well!
    We were pretty lazy the rest of the time and spent most of it at the Cheesecake Factory which is probably our favourite place ever. No sign of the Big Bang Theory crew, although they've probably moved on to the likes of Nobu, now that they're super rich and famous!
    Andy surfed on Venice beach which was pretty cool! Venice Beach was certainly an experience - full of people from every walk of life and many people trying to sell you medical marijuana cards.    Read more

  • MandeeAch it’ll be reetMandee

    Yosemite

    November 28, 2017 in the United States ⋅ 🌧 8 °C

    We are the lucky wildlife charms and again we would see animals here on our travels to Yosemite. My cousins Laurie and Ron have friends that lent us their 2nd home which is in Groveland, just outside Yosemite. It's a private gated community and mainly wealthy people who have second homes next to the park. We arrived late one evening because we stopped at a some old cowboy towns on the way. We also visited the oldest bar in California the Iron Door Saloon. Eventually we arrived at the big house in Groveland and I got the open fire going straight away. The house backed onto a golf course and had everything we needed. The following day we headed into the park and after a short while we came across the view of the valley, which was stunning. We had blue skies the whole time. We did a couple of walks while in the valley and on the 2nd walk we came across a big buck walking along the road as in the picture. Further on while everyone was chatting away, I spotted what something which at first I thought 'what the hell is a domestic cat doing out here?' then I noticed the whisks of hair poking up from its ears and realized it was a bobcat. I was speechless and after trying to tap Ron on the arm while mumbling the same ugh, ugh, ugh (a continuous joke against me for some time) over and over again. Maddie, Laurie and Ron stopped and gaped too. The bobcat walked 5ft right beside us and after a little look at us and brief stop, just continued wandering along between the rocks and trees (see pics below). We continued up to mirror lake which is aptly named and had lunch while nervously watching a fairly large rock fall off one of the mountains. As the light faded the tips on some mountains became golden yellow and even reddish pink, was so pretty. During the evening and next day we walked along the trail at the bottom of the higher and lower Yosemite falls which are the highest in North America. Stunning day again and a place we will most definitely visit again!Read more

  • MandeeAch it’ll be reetMandee

    Nevada

    November 21, 2017 in the United States ⋅ 🌫 14 °C

    Lake Tahoe is split down the middle between California and Nevada so we nipped over there quite a few times on our excursions! There are some fascinating old mining towns there which has kept almost all of their original features - shops, mines, bars, ghosts.. felt some of the people were right out of the 1850s too! Virginia City in particular is a really historic town - this feels like the closest we've got to 'Americana' since we've been here.
    It's quite striking how different Nevada is as soon as you step over the border - the scenery changes, the weather gets hotter, the casinos rise up (and you can gamble pretty much anywhere including whilst waiting at your airport gate!), gun culture is much more in your face and political affiliations are made abundantly clear!    Read more

  • MandeeAch it’ll be reetMandee

    Lake Tahoe, California State

    November 18, 2017 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 5 °C

    After a fantastic trip to San Francisco it was now time to catch the Greyhound bus up to Lake Tahoe. My cousins Laurie and Ron have retired or semi retired up here from San Francisco. The Meyers area to be precise. After picking us up, we headed further up into the mountains and eventually arrived 6352ft up at there beautiful home in Meyers. We were to stay for Thanksgiving, but soon realised everyday would be thanksgiving as we would be well fed! It took awhile to acclimatise to the elevation and I suffered a bit after a couple of days, but after a few whiskeys it was all good. The main part of Lake Tahoe is quite strange as part of Tahoe is in Nevada and the other part is in California. As soon as the border comes along, then so do all the casinos. My cousins took us out all over the place, from cowboy towns in Nevada, Yosemite and also back to San Francisco. We had a great time staying here and the dogs Ava and Zeus would always let us know they were there too, to be fussed over! It only snowed on a couple of occasions and the temperature was pretty low during the early evening and through the night. The lake itself is big, blue and quite beautiful. I was thinking of having a dip, but chickened out after putting my hand in. I'm very grateful for my cousins hospitality and being shown a heck of a lot of places in California and Nevada. Meeting their sons Johnathan & Liam and Julia who is now married to Johnathan. Congrats!. Some great memories here which will not be forgotten. Cannot wait to go back and see the family and to be shown the rest of the Yosemite!Read more

  • MandeeAch it’ll be reetMandee

    San Francisco

    November 15, 2017 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

    San Francisco is awesome. One of the best cities we've been to. After dropping the hire car off at the airport we headed downtown to hit Chinatown for some dinner. Chinatown was busy and quite dirty compared with the rest of the city. We visited some cool bars in San Francisco over the 3 days we were there - we watched a couple of bands at the Boom Boom Room before heading back to our cheap, dated hotel. Saying that though it was still good enough. There are quite a lot of homeless and people with mental health issues in San Francisco, and we did feel sorry for them, but a bit nervous in some parts of the city at night. It seemed that the government doesn't do enough for these people. We also got to go on the famous cable car and even got to use the brakes down California Avenue. It was hilarious, as Maddie was using the brakes one conductor jumped out to get his and the driver's lunch, the busiest street in San Francisco and we hold the traffic up! You had to be there, but was funny as hell! The one thing I wanted to do here was visit Alcatraz and so we booked two tickets on a cruise and I dragged Maddie along. The sun was out and the ride over was amazing, we got to see the Golden Gate Bridge we drove over days before from the bay. Alcatraz looked imposing sitting in the middle of the bay and the closer we got, the bigger it got. It was so cool to go in the prison and see the cells in which Al Capone and other big criminals had spent there days. The exercise yard where Clint Eastwood filmed Escape From Alcatraz. The whole experience was so cool and the views back to San Francisco bristling in the sun was awesome. Once back on the mainland we walked the 600 plus steps to Coit tower. This 210ft tower was built in 1933 as a memorial to a rich lady called Lillie Hitchcock Coit. The views from the top of the bay and city was phenomenal, a real highlight of San Francisco.Read more

  • MandeeAch it’ll be reetMandee

    Bodega Bay, California State

    November 13, 2017 in the United States ⋅ 🌧 15 °C

    Bodega Bay was to be our base for visiting Point Reyes seashore park. We stayed at Bodega Dunes state campground for four days. The town is very picturesque and there are a couple of restaurants/bars overlooking the bay. We had drinks in some over our short stay here, but not the food as was quite pricey. Our first visit down to Point Reyes and the weather was very overcast, we chatted with the guy in the visitor centre and decided to head to Limantour beach. Visibility was poor, but the walk was very quiet and peaceful and we enjoyed a fascinating game of throw the tennis ball in the sea and watch it wash back in again... In the evening we drove down to the local bar and a couple started chatting with us, turned out he was a captain of a boat and said he would leave us a crab behind the bar for the following evening. The next day we headed back to Point Reyes because we wanted to visit the lighthouse. The drive up to the lighthouse was long, but with a beautiful clear day we got views along Reyes beach to the north. We saw lots of deer roaming the headlands around the lighthouse. After an hour or so we headed along to the Chimney Rock trail, but first we had to check out Elephant Seal lookout and this has to be one of the highlights of the US west coast. We spent around half hour watching the elephant seals swimming, sleeping, play fighting and messing about on the beach. We also saw a pelican and turkey vultures, but we saw the latter all the way down the California coast. When we eventually got to the end of the Chimney trail, we could just about see the top of the Golden Gate Bridge. While looking at the gate a huge helicopter came over the cliff and pulled a wrecked speed boat out of the sea, what a sight that was. Tiredness was coming so we decided to head north again, but we really fancied a beer and heard the town of Point Reyes was cool. We sat down at the bar/saloon. The barman puts an amber beer in front of Maddie and an IPA beer in front of me and says 'Charles had that one and Camilla had that one' for a few moments I thought, hmm what! Then Maddie said 'he's not wrong, look up there' I looked up and saw three photos of Prince Charles and Camilla on a visit in 2005 to the bar. Was really cool. We drank up and headed back up to Bodega to get our crab, only to find the place closed for a private function! Very annoying. Eventually it was time to hit the road again and head to San Francisco!Read more

  • MandeeAch it’ll be reetMandee

    Cannon Beach, Oregon State

    November 5, 2017 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 8 °C

    Today we crossed into Oregon from Washington state. We had planned to spend a few days along the Columbia River checking out all the waterfalls and trekking at the foot of Mt Hood. Unfortunately after driving over the bridge of the gods and not liking the campsite we headed further up the river and then headed down the east side of Mt Hood. Yet another campsite closed. After the weather hitting 0-C We decided to head west to towards Portland and Cannon Beach for warmer weather. Cannon Beach is a beautiful beach on the north west coast of Oregon and the town itself is quaint, rustic but quite rich. We had no idea where we would be staying and after driving around for long periods of time, we decided to spend the $31 to park at a campsite and crash in the car for the night. The place was completely in the dark and after getting out of the car and having coyotes coming within a few feet we jumped back in the car and slept. When the morning came we found that a ranger had put our $28 payment back on our windscreen and a warning about a citation. We both got mad, it wasn't our fault we didn't have the correct change that late at night. I might add that most state parks in the U.S charge the extra dollar and if you overpay then it's seen as a donation! Cheeky gits! Anyway, we drove off and got their 3 bucks. Headed back to the beautiful Cannon Beach and cooked our breakfast in the beautiful sunshine.Read more

  • MandeeAch it’ll be reetMandee

    Mt St Helens, Washington State

    November 3, 2017 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 0 °C

    We were both so excited to see Mt St Helens - I mean it's a volcano that erupted pretty fiercely in very recent years and the top has blown off! What more do you want?! We even spoke to a few people who have lived here all their lives and talk about how sad it is to see the landscape decimated. Unfortunately the weather misbehaved the whole time we were there and we never actually got to see the mountain.. major disappointment, but we did get to see some other really cool stuff to make up for it!
    We drove up first to the main viewing point, but started to get pretty snowy on the roads as we got up higher... Some scary moments and eventually we made it to a road block :( but we decided to do a short walk around the lava hummocks in the snow! You are walking right among huge piles of rock that came straight out of the volcano! Pretty cool. And we got some great views of the valley to see how it's been changed by the lava flow. I can see why people find it sad, but it's also beautiful and fascinating to see how life is slowly returning.
    We also went to visit some older remnants of Mt St Helens' eruptions - the lava caves and canyons. Another even hairier drive through the snow (well done Madeleine again ..!) past the hundreds of hunters out for the first day of the season. First stop was the lava canyons which were carved out a few thousand years ago during an eruption - you can see the lava flow in the cliffs! The snow on the path was pretty deep this time so we didn't do the full walk which had steep drops into canyon! The Ape caves were the next stop and we got a lot more than we bargained for! We took a couple of torches for what we thought would be a short walk into a large cave.. but we ended up scrambling over huge rocks, pulling ourselves up on ropes and staring at snow coming in through skylights! After a few hours of total darkness and seemingly never ending rockfalls to battle, we made it to the cave mouth.. and emerged into Narnia! There had been a dusting snow at the caves which are at a slighter lower altitude, but when we emerged 2 hours later, the whole place was transformed into a silent white forest! It was the most surreal experience to come out after hours into a totally different environment. It's also a one way walk so there's no-one around when you emerge which added to the sense we were in another world! Truly fascinating walk.
    Both exhausted by this point, but we did make it to the lava trees - holes in the earth where the lava had flowed around the trees and solidified. The tree sets on fire then eventually rots away to leave a 2m deep hole in the ground!
    So we didn't get to see the mountain that caused all of this, but seeing the effect she's had on the area around was almost as good!    Read more

  • MandeeAch it’ll be reetMandee

    Hoh rainforest, Washington State

    October 31, 2017 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 10 °C

    The Hoh rainforest is in the middle of Olympic national park, Washington State. The drive from La Push beach through the forest is quite remote. First thing we had to decide was where to pitch our tent for the night. We went past a couple of places, but they were deserted. Seeing a man with his camera out by the side of the road just before the state campsite, we pulled over to see what was happening. There was around 10 or so elk grazing by the river, it was so cool. We then drove into the visitor's car park and into the campsite. There were a couple of trailers around and we stopped by the first one to watch a huge bull elk (picture below) wandering around the campsite eating the vegetation. With the bear issue from Ucluelet still fresh in our memory, we were apprehensive about camping out in remote places and especially deserted campsites. A walk was needed to freshen ourselves and get us thinking more clearly. There are 3 hikes here. Two short ones (ancient grove/hall of mosses) and a longer one that goes straight over the hills and mountains as far as Hurricane Ridge, where we visited some days before. The ancient trees were amazing and the incredible amount of mosses on the trees and vegetation made the trees almost hard to identify. Sitting having lunch at the car park we saw a group of young adults on a kind of learning, training exercises. So we took the opportunity to camp near them, so we could have strength in numbers. A trailer guy popped over and gave us some elk sausages which were very tasty. Settling in for the night we soon fell asleep and when we awoke the huge bull elk was so close to our tent that we could almost smell him. We took many pictures and videos of him before heading back into the forest for another long trek amongst the big moss covered trees and elk.Read more

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