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An NZ Odyssey by Lisa & KeeganAn NZ Odyssey by Lisa & Keegan
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An NZ Odyssey by Lisa & Keegan

September 2018 - May 2024
Two Canucks just out for a rip in New Zealand Bud. Over there for like a good year... oh fuck yeah bud. Read more
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  • TravelerAn NZ Odyssey by Lisa & Keegan
    Day 22

    Back to Auckland

    October 2, 2018 in New Zealand ⋅ ⛅ 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.    Read more

  • TravelerAn NZ Odyssey by Lisa & Keegan
    Day 23

    Muriwai beach

    October 3, 2018 in New Zealand ⋅ ⛅ 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    Read more

  • TravelerAn NZ Odyssey by Lisa & Keegan
    Day 25

    Tauranga

    October 5, 2018 in New Zealand ⋅ ☀️ 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.    Read more

  • TravelerAn NZ Odyssey by Lisa & Keegan
    Day 30

    Rotorua

    October 10, 2018 in New Zealand ⋅ ⛅ 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:)    Read more

  • TravelerAn NZ Odyssey by Lisa & Keegan
    Day 31

    Rainbow Mountain & Kerosene Creek

    October 11, 2018 in New Zealand ⋅ ⛅ 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.    Read more

  • TravelerAn NZ Odyssey by Lisa & Keegan
    Day 32

    Whananaki

    October 12, 2018 in New Zealand ⋅ 🌬 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!Read more

  • TravelerAn NZ Odyssey by Lisa & Keegan
    Day 33

    Paihia

    October 13, 2018 in New Zealand ⋅ 🌬 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).Read more

  • TravelerAn NZ Odyssey by Lisa & Keegan
    Day 35

    Whananaki to Sandy Bay

    October 15, 2018 in New Zealand ⋅ ☀️ 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.    Read more

  • TravelerAn NZ Odyssey by Lisa & Keegan
    Day 37

    Cape Brett Track

    October 17, 2018 in New Zealand ⋅ ☁️ 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!    Read more

  • TravelerAn NZ Odyssey by Lisa & Keegan
    Day 40

    90 Mile Beach & Te Paki San Dunes

    October 20, 2018 in New Zealand ⋅ ⛅ 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.    Read more

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