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An NZ Odyssey by Lisa & Keegan
  • Keegan and Lisa
  • Keegan and Lisa

An NZ Odyssey by Lisa & Keegan

Two Canucks just out for a rip in New Zealand Bud. Over there for like a good year... oh fuck yeah bud. En savoir plus
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  • Début du voyage
    11 septembre 2018
    Keegan and LisaAn NZ Odyssey by Lisa & KeeganVoyageur

    Auckland - Days 1 to 3

    11 septembre 2018, Nouvelle-Zélande ⋅ ☁️ 11 °C

    Days 1-3

    So, our working holiday started in Auckland. Think Vancouver but, with less bike lanes and people driving on the wrong side of the road. Lisa's old-time field hockey friend Jess, and her husband Chris took us in for a solid two weeks so we could get our shit sorted. They rent a sick flat 20 minutes North of the City Center in the suburb of Milford. There house was awesome, 2 minute walk to an insanely scenic beach, near shops, and not overly touristy.

    Our first day we went for a walk along the beach, picked up a cell phone, honestly that was about it. On day three, Chris took us into Auckland to both start our mini quest of finding a camper van, and to hike up a small volcano hill thingy called One Tree Hill. No luck finding a van. The hike was neat, and the ease of it was much welcomed, as we were painfully jet-lagged. Their were lots of sheep and a good view of the city.    En savoir plus

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  • Keegan and LisaAn NZ Odyssey by Lisa & KeeganVoyageur

    Waikehe Island trip

    15 septembre 2018, Nouvelle-Zélande ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C

    By our first weekend in Auckland, we were still without a vehicle but over our jet lag and looking to get out for a bit of an adventure. Keegan's university buddy, Chris Morrison recently moved to NZ, and we were able to meet up with him and take a ferry ride out to Waikehe Island (aka Auckland's wine Island). Hoping to do some hiking around but somewhat limited by this Kauri Dieback disease that has closed a lot of trails. Took in some beaches and drank wine instead, no complaints!En savoir plus

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  • Keegan and LisaAn NZ Odyssey by Lisa & KeeganVoyageur

    Devonport

    18 septembre 2018, Nouvelle-Zélande ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C

    By this point, Keegan and I had looked at a ton of vans! Feeling a bit discouraged by how shitty they were, we decided to go for a run along the beach to Devonport, a bayside village with fancy cafes and shops. On-route We went up North head, this volcanic cone which has some great habour views, and weird WW-2 era concrete tunnels, as it was used as a defensive bunker.

    As fate would have it, the best part of the day was running by a sexy red van with a" for sale sign"! We bought it that night... Technically the van is mine (Lisa) since she's registered to me - we figured this was best since Keegan's car history usually results is something breaking and costly a shit ton of money.

    Her name (still the van) is Big Red Betty and she is pretty fantastic:). Now we just need to empty her out and make her liveable.    En savoir plus

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  • Keegan and LisaAn NZ Odyssey by Lisa & KeeganVoyageur

    Rangitoto Island

    20 septembre 2018, Nouvelle-Zélande ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    Rangitoto Island is a tourist trap. Straight up. Its a natural area, less than a half hour by ferry from Auckland, has some good views, is pretty unique with its volcanos and whatnot, and has a ton of easy treks. We went early, picked a weekday, and thought that for the most part, we would beat the crowds to the top, as the ferry only had a a couple groups of hikin boot totin backpackers. Welp, turns out a local school group consisting of 150 kids and their overwhelmed supervisors, had the same train of thought.

    Lisa and I (Keegan) picked a trail fairly direct 3km trail from the boat up the 260m high volcano. And I would like to say it was relaxing, and we enjoyed the sun and the foreign terrain.. but we were not going to let those children, all 150 of them beat us to the top. Nah uh. Not all of them were racing us I guess. We overheard one 10 year old say "Why are we doing this? the only reason we are doing this is just so we can eat lunch at the top".

    We won the race. and shared the summit with about ten selfie-taking Germans. It was rather peaceful. Really cool views of the harbour, you could see the hilly Cormandel region to the south, amd the middle part of the volcano was super green and overgrown.

     We were then chased off the summit by the screaming and shouting of those snotty-nosed children, but quickly found some jungly lava flows that we could walk through (maybe 20 meters long so bring a headlamp).

    We shared the ferry home with the school group. They were exhausted and quiet. It was wonderful.    En savoir plus

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  • Keegan and LisaAn NZ Odyssey by Lisa & KeeganVoyageur

    Piha

    22 septembre 2018, Nouvelle-Zélande ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    We met up with Chris Morrison again and his Yankee friend Garrett and checked out Piha, a small village 45 minutes west of Auckland. It's a black sanded surfing beach, beautiful place with a mystical feel. We did a short hike with some epic coastline views called the Mercer Bay Loop, then went into the village and putzed around tidal pools and big-ass rock formations. Giant waves and a lot of scared surfers.En savoir plus

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  • Keegan and LisaAn NZ Odyssey by Lisa & KeeganVoyageur

    Betty is ready!

    26 septembre 2018, Nouvelle-Zélande ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C

    After 5 days or so of reno's on the van, Betty (the van) is finally ready to go! Not going to lie, it was a bit of a frustrating process getting our bed built and organized for van life. Keegan and I continue to learn how differently our minds work😒... But we pulled it off and excited to get on the road!

    We are both so grateful for our amazing roomies the past 2 weeks! They were so generous in sharing their home with us and it was a great way to start out our NZ year. Thanks team!    En savoir plus

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  • Keegan and LisaAn NZ Odyssey by Lisa & KeeganVoyageur

    Stop 1 - Raglan

    27 septembre 2018, Nouvelle-Zélande ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    Keegan, Betty, and I (Lisa) started our road trip by visiting Raglan for a couple days. We got to experience camping for the first time in Betty and NZ, which is definitely different and not quite the same as back home. Camping basically means sleeping in a field... Generally no trees and no privacy Haha.. But hopefully we get better at scoping out the good campgrounds. Night 1 went pretty good, a bit disorganized and I felt a little stressed but I suppose that was to be expected.

    We both were itching to do something active so started out 1 day with a pretty great hike up Mt. Karioi. Round trip was about 5hrs and the summit offered some spectacular 360 views. It was a pretty rugged track, not for beginners. Over here, they don't really believe in switch backs, you just go straight up.

    The next day we walked around Ranglan, and checked out Bridal Veil Falls. Raglan has character, no doubt. It's got a pretty solid second-hand store patchouli freedom camp scene and surfers. We are neither (yet), so we didn't not necessarily feel at home.

    Raglan is well known for there surfing but conditions and timing were not right for us this time. I'm sure we will be back though!

    Ok and I have to ask... Why are their so many French and German Backpackers here?... its seriously like 10 (German or French) to 1 (Non-German or French).

    Tourist trapometer: 7/10
    Awesometer: 9/10 (Mt. Karioi) 4/10 (Raglan)    En savoir plus

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  • Keegan and LisaAn NZ Odyssey by Lisa & KeeganVoyageur

    Kawhia

    28 septembre 2018, Nouvelle-Zélande ⋅ ☀️ 14 °C

    We left Raglan with no plans, except to just leave Raglan. We basically started driving down a crazy windy, gravel road until we ended up at Kawhia, a small fishing town. We had just been talking about how it might be sweet to go to the Cormandel and find a hot water beach. If you are unfamiliar, a hotwater beach is one where hot spring water percolates through the beach towards the ocean. You can utilize this phenomena by digging a make-shift hot tub in the sand during low tide, thus creating an ocean-side hot tub where drinking beer is encouraged. Well as it turns out Kawhia has one, and its kind of a secret.

    We learned from a lovely gas station attendant that there was a hot water beach just on the other side of the town, and all you need is a shovel. We ended up getting really lucky as the tide was out for sunset, and we only had to share it with 10-15 other people (apparently the famous one in the cormandel can get hundreds of patrons). Pretty cool to go and dig your own hot tub!

    Tourist trapometer: 2/10
    Awesometer: 10/10    En savoir plus

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  • Keegan and LisaAn NZ Odyssey by Lisa & KeeganVoyageur

    Waitomo Caves

    1 octobre 2018, Nouvelle-Zélande ⋅ 🌧 13 °C

    Today we checked out the caves in Waitomo and did the black water rafting adventure. It was pretty cool, basically went tubing underground in a cave where there are a ton of glow worms. We learned that its it's there poo that is actually glowing and they are maggots, not really worms. We both were hoping for a bit more excitement and was a bit expensive for what it was, but definitely a cool experience.

    Obviously no pictures in this one, was dark and very wet!

    Tourist trapometer: 9/10
    Awesometer: 7/10    En savoir plus

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  • Keegan and LisaAn NZ Odyssey by Lisa & KeeganVoyageur

    Back to Auckland

    2 octobre 2018, Nouvelle-Zélande ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

    So back to Auckland... but for exciting reason! We bought BIKES! We are pumped!
    My new ride is a 2015 Rockymountain Thunderbolt 730. It's a upgrade from my last bike and bright orange😊. It's a full suspension with a bit more travel then I'm use to (in think 130mm) and has a dropper seat post. Keegan also upgraded bikes to a hard tail with 27.5 plus tires. (If anyone new keegans old bike you'd know it's an upgrade!) It's a 2018 Trek Roscoe 7. Both have awesome slack geometry, meaning the front forks of our bike point forward instead of straight down... Google it if thats hard to visualize.... I had to.

    Keegan bought his bike new from a store in Auckland, which is mostly why we needed to head back up. We also needed a rack for Betty which the store also carried.
    We got to visit with Jess and Chris again too which was great! Mostly talked bikes, Haha we were all pretty excited!

    Prior to coming back to Auckland, we did make an extra stop in Cambridge, really cute Victorian looking city. I checked out the town while Keegan did some library work.    En savoir plus

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  • Keegan and LisaAn NZ Odyssey by Lisa & KeeganVoyageur

    Muriwai beach

    3 octobre 2018, Nouvelle-Zélande ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    We had to bring our bikes in to get the brakes switched around (crazy Kiwi's ride with the rear brake on the left!). So while we were waiting we headed out to Muriwai for a night. Muriwai is another westcoast blacksanded beach town. The waves were a bit crazy (2-3 meters), but Keegan decided to get out on a surf board finally. He was exhausted from paddling into, and surfing whitewash but had fun! I didn't think I'd enjoy myself the same on those waves Haha so I chilled on the beach which was perfect.
    Besides surfing, Muriwai is known for their gannet bird colony. It's pretty crazy how many birds hangout there. This is their breeding place so basically watched a bunch of birds getting it on.

    Tourist trapometer: 8/10
    Awesometer: 8/10    En savoir plus

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  • Keegan and LisaAn NZ Odyssey by Lisa & KeeganVoyageur

    Tauranga

    5 octobre 2018, Nouvelle-Zélande ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C

    Keegan and I both have a lot of ideas of what we want to do but no actual plans. We basically know we want to surf and bike, and that we need to get in a visit with Lana and Luke while they are here visiting family with the new little munchkin Mataya. We headed down to Tauranga where there is surfing, biking close by and Luke and Lana!
    We got to try out our bikes here just at a small bike park called Summerhills which was pretty fun! And then went and met up with Lana, Luke, Mataya and Luke's sis Jenna for some fish & chips. We went to Bobby's fresh fish market where Luke claimed had the absolute best fish and chips and we were not disappointed!

    Lana and Luke are out in Rotorua for the weekend, staying at Jenna's place and with Keegan having some school obligations (with a dateline of next week!) we decided to also head to Rotorua area for some more visiting and time for Keegan to get some shit done.    En savoir plus

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  • Keegan and LisaAn NZ Odyssey by Lisa & KeeganVoyageur

    Rotorua

    10 octobre 2018, Nouvelle-Zélande ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C

    We stayed up at Blue Lake for 4 nights which is just outside of Rotorua. It was a really pretty spot and was right next to Redwood where all the magical biking is! We could bike from our campsite which was definitely a bonus. The other nice part is it didn't stink up there... Rotorua is known for its geothermal activity which makes it one stinky city. It smells like sulfur or rotten eggs and, depending on the wind, can be pretty rough.

    We got in 3 awesome bike rides during our stay here. The first day we decided to bike up ourselves without using the shuttle service. It's not a crazy climb but after a few laps I was dead tired! Keegan and I both enjoy the climbs but unfortunately no one else in Rotorua does so they don't have any climbing trails, just a gravel road. The next 2 days we took the shuttle up which was sweet since we could check out some different trails a bit quicker. These trails are fun! They are fast and flowy, with a lot of berms. I think my favourite trail so far was Billy T:). They have a ton a trails named after Rocky Horror Picture Show for some reason which I thought was awesome! Keegan had never seen the movie so I made him watch it Haha. Well, we watched most of it... he did not like it.

    We got in some more great visiting with Lana and Luke too while we were here! Was nice to hang out and relax with them while Keegan was busy with school stuff. We went to look at boiling mud in the park and hung out with Blair (luke's brother in-law) and 2 kids which was... chaos Haha but great! Nice reminder of work;). Since there is a lot of Maori culture in this area, we decided on a cultural evening out and went to a hangi. Basically a feast where they cook food with steam under the ground. Keegan was our Tribe's (at least 100 ppl) Chief for the night! He had to accept the peace offering and ask on our behalf if we could dine with them (Maori ppl) for the night. He did great! He was the center of attention and in everyone's pictures, all of his favourite things! (Just kidding, he hates all that).

    Sad to only get a few days with Lana and Luke but still so cool to get together with friends while in NZ. And I'm sure there will be more Saunder's family visiting in our near future:)    En savoir plus

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    Rainbow Mountain & Kerosene Creek

    11 octobre 2018, Nouvelle-Zélande ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    Disclaimer: Ok. First parts about a mountain bike trail, you might not care. But the second part of this post is about a hot water river (hot tub temperature), with waterfalls and you can swim in. Every but should care about those things...

    After tearing up the smooth, wide, and speedy-fast machine built trails of Rotorua, Lisa and I decided to earn our turns at what the internet calls: one of the best adventure trails in the Rotorua area, Rainbow Mountain. Rainbow Mountain is a volcanic peak about 30 km south of Rotorua, situated in the middle of pasture land. It's heavily vegetated with tropical looking trees, and has a lot of interesting steaming rocks and ponds. From the top, their is a full 360 panorama, featuring smaller volcanic peaks to the North, Mount Tongariro to the South, and a mix of forest and pastureland everywhere else.

    The mountain bike trail itself was about 8 km and included 390 m of climbing from car to peak, of which about half required pushing our bikes instead of pedaling. So your probably thinking "that doesn't sound like fun!", or "why didn't you just stay within the confines of Rotorua, where $5 dollar shuttle-rides can give you just as long of descents?". Well the truth is we are masochists, plus we heard (and can now verify) that the downhill section is rough, rugged, and rad as hell. The trail is awesome! The top half is steep technical downhill, which taught Lisa and I that we should listen to our friends at home who tell us our old bikes sucked, and a new bike would change our lives. Fine, we get it. "Geometry, and bigger tires... Blah, blah, blah". Seriously, bikes make for better riders. The second half was smooth, flowy, fast jungle riding, which was equally as radical.

    ---------Kerosene Creek - ---Hot Water River---------------------

    So apparently Rotorua is famous for its geothermal bathing experiences. Lisa and I are a bit ignorant to this as, and unwilling to take part in the fun because these types of attractions, for the most part are super-duper expensive. But there is a magic place which shares a parking lot with the Rainbow Mountain Mountain Bike Trail called Kerosene Creek where you can enjoy geothermal water in a jungle setting, while swimming under a waterfall, while drinking a beer, and all for free. Also, while it is not exactly a secret, it's not the most busy place in the world. Worth a trip for sure, just make sure a shower is in your evening plans, as the water kind of smells like either the worksite at my fathers wetland planting business or a feedlot.    En savoir plus

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  • Keegan and LisaAn NZ Odyssey by Lisa & KeeganVoyageur

    Whananaki

    12 octobre 2018, Nouvelle-Zélande ⋅ 🌬 16 °C

    Van life is good but its always nice to have a break. We decided it was a good time to head up north and get a place for a few days so we can stay and explore from 1 spot. We found a cute little place just north of Whananaki at the very end of a dirt road, up a crazy steep driveway. It was very quiet and relaxing up there since it was just Keegan and I. Our little house was pretty little but still gave us some room to sleep, cook and eat. It felt great to be able to stand up in our home and the views weren't bad either. The only down side to this place was the distances from all the things we wanted to do. Well actually distance wasn't bad, usually we were within 20 kms away from our destination but ACCESS to that place was a different story - so many windy roads!En savoir plus

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    Paihia

    13 octobre 2018, Nouvelle-Zélande ⋅ 🌬 14 °C

    Day 1 of our time out by the Bay of Islands, we decided to check out Paihia and do a bit of biking. They have a bike park close by in Waitangi which looked pretty fun! We continue to learn that people here don't like up tracks. This park did have a trail up but it's not a big climb and very chill. It was kind of funny to see a shuttle service for this place as well, since it only takes you 10mins or less to climb up! Downhill rides were fun and was a good place to practice getting a bit of air (I was excited if I managed to get both wheels off the ground haha).En savoir plus

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  • Keegan and LisaAn NZ Odyssey by Lisa & KeeganVoyageur

    Whananaki to Sandy Bay

    15 octobre 2018, Nouvelle-Zélande ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C

    Over the next couple days we checked out Sandy Bay and Whananaki area. Originally we were going to rent some stand-up paddle boards, but was a bit too windy so we decided on a surf day instead. Sandy bay was a perfect place for me to practice since it was less intimidating then some areas. I've only surfed 2 times in my life, so its pretty new, but had a great time! Surfing is definitely hard! And its hard for me to not be good at something right away... I guess a little practice can't hurt!
    The next day we decided on a coast hike from Whananaki south to Sandy Bay. Its funny because its about 10 km one way which took us about 2 hours to walk and it was a 75 min drive to the bay the day before! Next time we would just take our bikes along the coastal route and then get someone to drop off some surf boards at the other side! Another stunning view of the east coast.    En savoir plus

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  • Keegan and LisaAn NZ Odyssey by Lisa & KeeganVoyageur

    Cape Brett Track

    17 octobre 2018, Nouvelle-Zélande ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C

    This was our first overnight track and first stay in a hut. They have huts all around NZ so can be a nice option instead of tenting. This track was 16ish km each way and called for 8hrs of hiking. And although it didn't take us 8hrs, it was a solid 5.5hr hike. Couple small peaks, with gorgeous coastal views all the way out to the light house which is right above the hut.
    The hut itself was pretty awesome, they provide you with all your cooking appliances, dishes and cookware so really just needed to bring in your own food. This hut holds 23 people but we were there with just another group of 4, so lots of bunk bed options.
    Overall this was a great first overnight track!    En savoir plus

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  • Keegan and LisaAn NZ Odyssey by Lisa & KeeganVoyageur

    90 Mile Beach & Te Paki San Dunes

    20 octobre 2018, Nouvelle-Zélande ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    We heard tale of epic sand boarding on giant sand dunes way up north on the North Island. Turns out the tales are true, situated 20km south of the Cape Reinga, the Northmost point on The North Island, and towering over 100m above 90 Mile Beach, lies the Te Paki sand dunes. Fine white sand stretched far and wide, and mountainously tall, punctated with herds of tourists all toting rented boogie boards.

    We started our day in Ahipara, a small town at the south end of 90-mile beach, and drove north. Oh. 90 mile beach is a white sand beach that may or may not be 90 miles long, regardless it is actually a state road and you can drive on it. So thats pretty much what we did for a 20 km stretch of it. The trick is to ignore the 4wd signs and gun it. 2 hours of driving took us to the giant infamous sand dunes.

    "The trick to it is to find an smooth slope, with a gentle runout, then see which one of you slides further", we were told by the chill as brah, who ran a monopoly on boogie board rentals in the area ($15 to rent a $50 board). We followed his advice and were met with endless opportunity of high speed boogie boarding.

    I don't like tourists. That is, with exeption to Lisa and myself, i dont like them. We (tourists) have a herdlike mentality, where we see one person having fun, and we imitate exactly what they were doing in exactly the same way. I think this makes our experiences less genuine or something. This is pretentious, but i wanna make my own memories dammit! This place emphasised the tourist herdlike mentality with a lineup of families and 20 year old contiki tourists boarding on the slope nearest to the parking lot. Lisa and i spotted the highest sand mountain we had ever seen about 2 km away , and immediately decided to carry our boards to the top of it. And how we were rewarded by vistas, not another tourist in site, and some sweet as boogie board lines.

    From the top of the sand mountain, Magic Carpet Mountain as was the name we provided, we could see the north tip of the island, cool sandstone features, the entire length of 90 mile beach, a natural arch island just of the coast, and a good look at potential boogieboard lines. We did not choose the longest or steepest , but rather opted for the one which did not end in sharp jagged rocks. It was still awesome, so I went twice .

    It Ended up being an awesome day. I would recommend our activities to all, just walk a bit further than everyone else.    En savoir plus

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  • Keegan and LisaAn NZ Odyssey by Lisa & KeeganVoyageur

    Coromandel - day 1

    22 octobre 2018, Nouvelle-Zélande ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    Northland was great but we wanted to be in 1 spot for a bit so we could get some more consistent surfing in. So plan was to go south, back to tauranga area and stay for a bit. A nice place to stop on the way was the coromandel. Our first day we decided to hit up the tourist attractions which is most beaches. The top 5 must dos of this area include Hauraki rail trail, cathedral cove, new chum beach, hot water beach and the pinnacles. We had plans to come back for the rail trail and already experienced the hot water beach thing so decided we would fit in the other top 3. Maybe not the best day for touristy things on a Monday of the long weekend but we went for it anyways. We started out with a visit to cathedral cove, pretty cool rocks down there but it was crazy busy with people. From there we headed up the coast to find new chum beach..this was much better! Takes about 30 mins to walk in to the beach from the parking lot. We went in the late afternoon and were happy to only see about a handful of people relaxing in the sun. Beauty beach and nice day to be in the ocean!

    Tomorrow we see the pinnacles:)    En savoir plus

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  • Keegan and LisaAn NZ Odyssey by Lisa & KeeganVoyageur

    Coromandel - the Pinnacles

    23 octobre 2018, Nouvelle-Zélande ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    The Kauaeranga Kauri Trail is 8km trail, following an old packhorse trail used in the early 1900s for forestry, through the Coromandel Forest Park up to what are known as the Pinnacles. It is a very popular trail, so it is super wide and well built. It actually reminded Lisa and I a lot of the Inca Trail in Peru. We spent the night with 30 other people in a massive 80-person hut with running water, propane, and electricity about 6 km from the trail head. It was fancy, and they actually had a shower block which Lisa used. In the evening, we wandered up from the hut to the top of the Pinnacles, which are several steep rock spires.

    From atop the Pinnacles, we were treated with sweet as views of forested valleys with occasional kauri trees, mountains and the ocean to the west. We found a flat spot to settle in for sunset, fired up the campstove, drank beer, and cooked up some Kumara (Sweet potato native to NZ) chickpea powerbowls. pretty much half way through meal prep , the rest of the hut patrons made their way up to the top. Although we were on a separate pinnacle, it dawned on us that because we were positioned between them and the sunset, we and our bright colored hiking cloths were going to end up in a bunch of other peoples pictures. Too bad for them, but it did make us chug beer and eat fast. Sunset was sweet too, lots of practice with the new camera.    En savoir plus

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  • Keegan and LisaAn NZ Odyssey by Lisa & KeeganVoyageur

    Papamoa beach

    3 novembre 2018, Nouvelle-Zélande ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C

    For the past 10 days we have been staying in Papamoa, in a cute little guest house, across the street from the beach. You think when you go away on holiday you will feel relaxed and stressfree but that really was not the case with us. When you are moving around all the time you don't feel like you get to just relax. So this was a perfect opportunity for us to take some chill time. Some things that we got up to over the past 10 days:
    - sleeping and napping: this one was especially important for Keegan
    - watching Netflix... a lot of it!
    - beach walks and home yoga (nice way to relax😊)
    - mountain biking at Summerhills and out in Rotorua (only a short 45min drive away)
    - little hike up Mount Maunganui aka 'the Mount'
    - biked the Hauraki railtrail (old rail road track that is now a gravel bike path in the coromandel area. There is a tunnel that is over 1km long that is pretty neat! Also was a good reminder to buy padded bike shorts!
    - dinner and a visit with Jenna (Luke's sis) Blair and the kids. This was so nice since we don't have a ton of opportunity to hang out with friends over here.
    - got out surfing for 4 days. Well for me, it was an attempt Haha. Conditions were not amazing for a beginner which really makes you feel frustrated and like a scaredy-cat! I'm a pretty solid swimmer and have done a lot of open water swimming but surfing is so different! There is a lot more fear involved in surfing and I was scared a lot! Hopefully we will have some better conditions coming so I can get some practice with that.

    We both feel like we didn't do a lot but I think that was the point! It also gave us an opportunity to do some planning for the next couple months.

    Oh and we signed up for the Old Ghost Road mountain bike track! It's 85km long, with 5000m of climbing, technical terrain, including some pretty crazy looking alpine riding. It looks insane and I'm really excited about it! Training has officially started😎    En savoir plus

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  • Keegan and LisaAn NZ Odyssey by Lisa & KeeganVoyageur

    Gisborne

    4 novembre 2018, Nouvelle-Zélande ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

    Ok back to vanlife. We headed out towards the east coast to a place called Gisborne. This was a top destination pick for Keegan because of the surfing but our timing continues to be off and there wasn't any good surfing conditions for the week. So we drank some beer at a brewery instead. Our Kiwi turned Canuck buddy Luke recommended to check out the natural rock waterslide in the area, which was good fun! We bought a little kids size floaty which didn't cut it but were able to borrow a boogy board instead. Definitely a worthwhile side trip to check out.

    We only stayed 1 night in gisborne which I think we both are regretting but there may be a chance to come back another time. When the waves are big enough!    En savoir plus

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  • Keegan and LisaAn NZ Odyssey by Lisa & KeeganVoyageur

    Napier and Hawke's bay

    7 novembre 2018, Nouvelle-Zélande ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    Further down the coast we headed for hawkes bay area. We spend 3 nights at a campground just outside of Napier, in Eskdale. Hawkes bay is wine country so I was pretty happy to be there:)
    The first couple days we checked out napier and did a couple mountain bike rides. We explored the local mountain bike park which had fun trails but not the prettiest area. Te Mata park on the other hand was awesome! This park has a bunch of hiking and biking trails and would definitely recommend! The mtb trails were pretty sweet! Some of our favourites so far this trip:)
    We also got out for a hike out to Cape kidnappers, which was a 10ishkm beach walk each way. At the end of the trail is another gannet bird colony reserve so we saw a bunch more birds.
    Finished each day off with some wine tasting of course.    En savoir plus

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