Northland adventures

Hello again from Auckland! Steph and I are sitting in the same internet cafe we posted from last time, only this time we have pictures of our excursion up to the Northland of New Zealand to share.

After a couple of nights in hotels, we began the backpacking portion of our trip in earnest when we boarded the Magic Bus bright and early, 7:15 AM, last Thursday. The first pickup spot was the office, and we were a little surprised when there were only six or seven people on the bus. Once we made the rest of the pickups at the hostels, however, we probably had twenty people on board for the trip up North.

It was a pretty uneventful ride up, with the exception that I tried my first pie for breakfast, a delicious concoction of steak, cheese and pastry. Yum. A couple of hours after we left Auckland, we arrived in Paihia, gateway to the Bay of Islands. We originally planned to stay for only one night, but after learning about the opportunity to swim with dolphins, something Steph has always wanted to do, we decided to book a day tour out on the water to try and do just that. Since Magic only picks up and drops off on alternate days, this meant we would be in Paihia for a total of three days.

While we had some initial reservations about the cost of the trip, we got our money's worth within the first hour when we spotted several pods of dolphins swimming together, sometimes within feet of the boat! Steph got some amazing pictures and I got a good video of the sightings. The trip also included an island stopover where I got to do a bit of tramping and Steph got some beach time, a trip to the famous Hole in the Rock, and some boom netting, where I and several others were dragged in a big fishing net alongside the boat. After the boat trip, we tried our first fish and chips, I learned the rules of cricket and rugby, and we spent some time out with a lovely British couple, Roz and Nick.

On the last full day it rained lightly most of the day, but that didn't stop us from doing a few things around town. I went on my first real tramp, which was great, and Steph and I took a grueling bike ride to some rather sad looking falls (especially compared to what I saw in Yosemite earlier this year). Not wanting to ride the hills back, we took a 5K tramp to get to higher ground, so as to be able to coast on the bikes back to our hostel.

We woke up bright and early this morning to catch the Magic Bus back to Auckland. Along the way we stopped in a few quaint towns, and drove through the Waipoua Forest, which showcased the way New Zealand was before it was settled. The biggest attraction was the massive kauri tree, Tane Mahuta, thought to be over 2,000 years old. Pretty incredible stuff.

The pictures from this section of the trip (and a brief dolphin video) are on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2286152&l=3a988&id=9605303

Tomorrow we are headed down south to Rotorua and Taupo. We'll post an update on those adventures in a few days.

Greetings from New Zealand

Hello all! Steph and I are sitting in an internet cafe in downtown Auckland, which means we made it safe and sound. We don't have a ton of time at the moment, since we're paying by the hour, but we did want to get some photos uploaded so everyone out there can see some of what we've been up to. Rather than uploading everything here, we've decided to post the pictures on our facebook pages, make the albums public, and then post the links here. Here's the first batch:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2285124&l=6c28b&id=9605303

We'll write more detailed descriptions of the flights, our customs encounters, the hotels and our excursions into Brisbane and Auckland when we're not on the clock.

We made it!

Hey everyone, checking in from Brisbane! We made it into the city this morning and I was able to open a Westpac account and deposit my Australian dollars. We also got some delicious curry in the city center. Pics and a longer update once we get to a computer you don't have to rent by the hour!

I'll show you mine...

It's 12:32 AM on D-Day, and my pack has finally come together. Choosing what made the cut was a little tricky. We're going to be spending a good amount of time backpacking, so it's important to have lightweight, functional items, but we'll also be living city life in Sydney and Melbourne, so it's almost important I not wear the same thing every day or look like a slob. I also need clothes with an eye towards form with a dash of style. Here's what made it, in no particular order:



Carry on - Inflatable travel pillow, gum, No Jet Lag pills (homeopathic medicine made in NZ), Dramamine, ear plugs & eye mask (I'd like to get SOME sleep on the flight), watch, camera & cable, water bottle, AU guidebook, book (Gulliver's Travels), smartpac toiletries (two servings of everything you need, should come in handy during the infinite layover in Brisbane), travel wallet, sunglasses, eye drops, ipod & cable, headphones.

Main pack - Four tshirts (three cotton, one dri-fit polyester), two of pairs shorts (one khaki, one dri-fit polyester), hoodie, three pairs of shoes (athletic, flipflop, going out/work), jeans, khaki jeans, polo, white button-up, hat, four pairs underwear, four pairs socks, small towel, windpants, lightweight waterproof jacket, swimsuit, glasses

Journal & pen, book (Oliver Twist), two dryer sheets, two earplugs, three packets of tide (designed for sink washing), safety pins, Febreeze, contact solution, contact case, small maglite flashlight, tide pen, vitamins, ibuprofen, antihistamine, tums, hand wipes, bandaids, emergency electrolyte tabs, whistle, 100oz camelbak bladder, downy wrinkle releaser, face wash, leatherman multitool, shampoo, conditioner, bar soap, toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, gel, mouthwash, razor, shaving cream, floss, lighter

And believe it or not, all of that fits with room to spare...



Next post should be from Brisbane!

Getting things done

A lot has happened since the last time we updated this. For starters, we are only twelve days away from departure! This is not a drill people, this is the real deal. Less than two weeks from now we'll be on a plane headed to the other side of the world. It's both terribly exciting and a little scary. We're on our game though, and have been getting prepared:

• We booked seats on a group bus tour in New Zealand!
  
  More specifically, we booked the New Zealand Discovery tour on the Magic Travellers Network (aka a bus), a 14 stop tour of both the North and South islands. They arrange for hostel accommodation each night and there's a ton to do each day along the way.


• We booked hotels for the first couple of nights.
  
  Turns out getting to Auckland from Tulsa takes a while, especially when the direct LA to Auckland flight is booked up. As such, it will take nearly 24 hours of flight time over 2 days to get there. We decided to be kind to ourselves and book hotels for the first two nights while we overcome jetlag.
  
  BK's Pioneer Motor Lodge fits the bill for the first night. It's five minutes away from the airport, has a free 24 hour shuttle service (handy since we don't arrive until 11PM), and the room has a whirlpool tub. We chose the Auckland City Hotel downtown for the second night, giving us the second day to make our way into and around town.


• We booked a flight out of New Zealand.
  
  Christchurch to Sydney is the route. Our bus tour finishes in Christchurch, and we're planning on living in Sydney for our first few months in Australia. We found a cheap fare on Virgin Blue through http://www.airninja.com/, which I kept wanting to call Fare Ninja.

• We bought travel insurance. Yeehaw.
  
  Atlas is their name, travel insurance is their game. Our policy includes $500k in medical coverage for the duration of the trip plus 45 days after we get back. It also covers things like lost bags or an emergency flight home if necessary.

• I opened a new checking account (I live an exciting life).
  
  I heard from numerous sources that I needed to get a myAccess checking account from Bank of America. You can use their ATM card for no fee internationally and you get a competitive exchange rate. They are somehow related to Westpac, a large Australian bank, meaning if you have accounts at both places, you can move money back and forth between the two. Very convenient. There's no monthly fee or anything else if you open it online.

Aside from working both jobs and trying to save as much as possible before we go, that's what has been keeping us busy for the past couple of weeks. We're doing a packing dry run soon to see how much we can realistically fit in our packs, so stay tuned.

Flight confirmed!

We booked our flights!  The route is more than a little circuitous, going through Australia to get to New Zealand, but we booked using my mom's AA Advantage Miles, so you won't hear me complaining!

If you can't quite make out the image, here's our route from Tulsa, OK to Auckland, NZ:

Tulsa to St Louis (1h10m flight, 2h layover)

St Louis to Los Angeles (4h5m flight, 2h35m layover)

Los Angeles to Brisbane (13h55m flight, 7h30m layover)

Brisbane to Sydney (1h30m flight, 1h5m layover)

Sydney to Auckland (3h flight)

Only 23 hours and 40 minutse of flight time! Oh yeah!

Howdy!

Hello out there! As the name of this blog suggests, my girlfriend Stephanie and I are planning to spend some time living in and around Australia. We are starting this blog to keep our friends and family up to date with everything related to the upcoming sojourn.

Here's of my little backstory to give everyone some perspective on what lead to this decision. I moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma about six months ago to start a new job; helping out with the operations at my parent's granite business. I was born and raised here, so initially it felt good to be back home. However, as the weeks became months, things in Tulsa took a turn for the boring. I realized that while this was a great place to grow up, and it would also be a great place to raise a family, it doesn't have much to offer 20 somethings.  

Now, between my previous job and this one, I took a two and a half week road trip through the southwest US. I tramped the dunes in White Sands, drove the Pacific Coast Highway from San Diego to San Fransisco, climbed to the rim of Yosemite and hiked down into the Grand Canyon. It was an incredible experience. Wanting to get back into go and do as you please that lifestyle, I began considering a much longer trip, and to someplace more exotic.

The more I thought about it, the more I liked it. I had a bit of money in the bank from my last job and I wasn't really tied down; I wasn't married, didn't have kids, no mortgage, and my current job wasn't going to be my career. After deciding this was something I wanted to do, I realized there was still a lot to figure out. How long would I go? Would a month be sufficient? Six months? A year? And where would I go? I've heard good things about Central and South America, and Southeast Asia is supposed to be beautiful. How would I pay for it? Could I save enough beforehand, or would I need a job?  The one thing I was sure about was that I wanted my girlfriend, Stephanie, to come with me. Now I just needed to talk to her and hope she felt the same way..

As it turned out, obviously, she did.  Her job wasn't turning out like she had hoped, and she felt equally blasé about Tulsa. We also both agreed it was unlikely we'd have another opportunity to simply pack up and do something like this. As we began to talk about potential destinations, we realized that my initial ideas might be a little...aggressive. To varying degrees, we figured there would be difficulties with transportation, language, and the inevitable job search once we ran out of money.  After some discussion, we decided that Australia would be pretty much perfect for us.  It's a huge place, almost as big as the contiguous US, but we'd be able to get around easily via planes, trains and automobiles.  The lack of a language barrier would make it easier to find work when we needed it, and the culture is similar enough to the US for us to be comfortable, but still different enough to keep things interesting.  On top of that, some of Stephanie's step-family lives in Australia, and she's always wanted to go there.

As for New Zealand, a couple of well traveled friends told me that if I was going to Australia, I'd be crazy not to spend some time in NZ as well.  I was sold after spending, like, 10 minutes looking at pictures of the place.

And thus, the decision was made.  All that was left to do after that was telling our friends and family, getting passports/visas, arranging flights, getting to do lists together, budgeting/saving, etc.  You know, the easy stuff....