Adventuriety
Queenstown, New Zealand is a buzzing, year-round, adrenaline destination set on the shores of New Zealand’s longest lake, amid a stunning backdrop of towering mountains and a moody sky. We’ve spent ten days here, the first long stop during our time in New Zealand and our first date with the South Island. This picture is taken from our balcony. You can’t get away from the...
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Inspirietry
Picture taking and posing for pictures has been a topic for debate in this family. Sometimes it is a heated debate but that is not what this blog is about. These New Zealand hikes are kicking my butt and in an attempt to not be very far behind everyone, I have surrendered the camera to Scott, usually with the hope that he will take some pictures...
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Adventuriety
New Zealand is an outdoor enthusiasts dream come true because there are infinite epic outdoor adventures to choose from and today was definitely epic. Scott found a doozie for us by the name of Mt. Alfred. He started off by telling me that the estimated time was 6-8 hours, but he read a blog that said it could be done in a little over four hours. The...
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Adventuriety
It has been cloudy and stormy and beautiful here in Queenstown. It seems like every type of weather is just another way for the mountains to showcase their magnificence. We needed exercise today, but there was little chance of a hike to a view and so our trusty leader decided that we would retrace part of the Ben Lomond track and summit Bowen Peak, another...
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Adventuriety
We traveled around the North Island of New Zealand for a week and now we are spending some time catching up on school and enjoying the very popular Queenstown and our first look at the South Island. Queenstown is an adrenaline junkies dream come true, summer or winter. If you can jump off of it, climb up, down, around or through it, bike, paraglide or...
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Adventuriety / Inspirietry
We left the magical Bay of Islands and drove towards Waipoua State Forest, another place that we had visited years ago. The kids have seen our giant California trees, but we wanted them to see New Zealand’s behemoths, the Kauri trees. photo by Grant A major threat to the Kauri, identified in 2008, is kauri dieback, a disease caused by a fungus-like water mold that attacks...
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Adventuriety
Scott and I spent a night in Bay of Islands on our honeymoon and have three vivid memories from our visit which is amazing to me because we have no pictures to jog these memories. The first memory involves a one man catamaran and some uncooperative wind. You have to remember that Bay of Islands is absolutely beautiful and pristine and it’s mostly about the water. The...
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Adventuriety
Scott and I have been married a few years. We went to Australia and New Zealand on our honeymoon and overheard a couple at one of the places we stayed talking about how they couldn’t believe that they were already celebrating their 10th Anniversary by returning to the place that they had honeymooned. We thought that sounded like a good idea and now all of...
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Adventuriety / Domesticiety
We spent two weeks in beautiful, charming San Sebastian and it wasn’t long enough. We loved our apartment, not a block from the sea, and our sweet and helpful apartment manager, Ane. We hiked a lot and also spent time enjoying the city, food and a few other things. Ashley took a surfing lesson and spent as many minutes as she could physically endure swimming...
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Adventuriety
Scott is our hike finder and Basque country in Spain did not disappoint. We enjoyed quite a few impressive hikes within a one hour drive from San Sebastian and for our last hike in Spain Scott wanted an epic hike, but one that did not involve a lot of driving. to get to the trail head so he chose Peñas de Aya or Trois Couronnes...
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