(Location: Victoria, Australia) I’d visited last year when my mom came to visit, but Andy was overseas at the time so he missed it. Since then, we’d been waiting for a nice and sunny Saturday, and it finally happened in November. Our plan was to take the Great Ocean Road out to The Apostles, stay […]
(Location: Victoria, Australia) The Grampians National Park is about a three hour drive north west of Melbourne. It was recommended by several of our friends, so we decided to so a quick overnight scouting trip. We stayed in the small town of Halls Gap, which is hopping with kangaroos around dusk. We did a little […]
(Location: Kangaroo Island, Australia) For Thanksgiving weekend in 2014, we spent a long weekend in Flinders Chase National Park on Kangaroo Island. We took the ferry when we visited in 2013, so this time we flew from Adelaide on Rex Air. The cost is about the same, but the flight is much quicker. There is […]
(Location: Purnulu National Park, Western Australia) For Andy’s birthday in 2014, we spent 3 nights “glamping” in the Bungle Bungle, part of Purnulu National Park on the eastern edge of The Kimberly in Western Australia. If you find yourself wondering where the heck that is, you are not alone. Most of the Australians we know […]
(Location: Uluru, Australia) We packed a hell of a lot into a weekend. We stayed at Sails in the Desert, which is part of Ayer’s Rock Resort, which is basically the entire town of Yulara. With the exception of the totally out of the question Longitude 131, this seemed like the nicest place to stay. […]
(Location: Chiang Mai, Thailand) In June of 2014, I taught a class in Shanghai, so we decided to make a long weekend out of it and visit Chiang Mai, Thailand. No, these two places are not really near one another. We stayed at Rachamankha, which we found on Trip Advisor. This was such a perfect […]
(Location: Lake Tekapo, New Zealand) [one_half] [/one_half] Day 9: To Lake Tekapo From Queenstown we headed north, past disturbingly turquoise lake and rivers, to Lake Tekapo. We’d pre-booked a site, and it is a good thing we did because they were completely sold out. Our reason for this destination was that it is known for […]
(Location: Franz Joseph to Queenstown, New Zealand) [one_half] [/one_half] Day 8: Glacier Hike and Queenstown It was raining when we went to sleep, but blue skies and glacier views when we woke up in the morning. It was warm, sunny, and empty when we started the walk to the viewpoint, and clouding up, cooler, and […]
(Location: Weston to Franz Joseph Glacier, New Zealand) [one_half] [/one_half] Day 7: To the Glacier From Westport, we headed down the west coast of the South Island. The coastline here is breathtaking – steep cliffs, boulder-filled bays, and crashing surf. Our first stop was the blowholes and Pancake Rocks near Punakaiki. After a bit of […]
(Location: Wellington to Westport, New Zealand) [one_half] [/one_half] Day 6: From the North to the South Island The ferry from Wellington departed at 8am, and the crossing to Picton (on the South Island) took just over three hours. The sea was generally calm, but the boat had to travel very slow due to the narrow […]