I go to Extremes

02 Dec 2010 1 Comment

by Robin in New Zealand Tags: , , , ,

https://dl-web.dropbox.com/get/Public/08%20I%20Go%20to%20Extremes.mp3?w=418de4b2

Queenstown, New Zealand

the view from our Balcony (our hostel room had a balcony)

Queenstown is known as “The Adventure capital of the World.” The first commercial Bungee jump area was started in Queenstown, and since then they have been trying to figure out new ways for the adrenaline junkies to get high. In the winter Queenstown is also a ski bum town, which is exactly what it felt like when we were there. Mountains, Canyons, and lakes surround the area – but the town of Queenstown itself is even something of a beauty.

Perhaps the one strange thing is that with Queenstown being such a great place to chill, people from other countries tend to not leave. And so it went that every store clerk, receptionist, and bartender we met was not from New Zealand. As strange as it was, we can’t say we minded since everyone we met was so happy to be there. In fact, I already have a nice Welsh boy picked out for my 18 year old sister for when I talk her into buying her own one-way ticket to Queenstown. (Kristin – we’ll talk later)

So what Tim and I do with our time in this charming town…
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Where’s Wally: Australia

26 Nov 2010 1 Comment

by Robin in Australia, Where's Wally Tags: , , , , , ,

doing time

Today poor Wally is in an 1800s style prison cell inside the infamous Fremantle Prison – one of the places that the British convicts were sent in the 19th Century.

Wally actually has something in common with the prison though. The most famous escape, known as the Catalpa Escape, involved 6 Irish political prisoners.

John Boyle O’Reilly, the original escapist befriended a priest who smuggled him out of the prison on an American whaling boat. O’Reilly went on to become the editor of the Boston Pilot. After making his fortune he never forgot his friends. He disguised the Catalpa as a whaling ship and sailed to Australia where he rescued his fellow prisoners.

On there escape the Australian authorities caught up with them while still in Australian waters, however, the Catalpa raised the American flag and claimed that to fire on them would be to declare war is America. (how very American of him).

So the men sailed off safely to Boston…hopefully to become some of the first Red Sox fans.

Sprawl (Mountains beyond Mountains)

24 Nov 2010 11 Comments

by Robin in New Zealand Tags: , , , , , ,

https://dl-web.dropbox.com/get/Public/15%20-%20Sprawl%20II%20%28Mountains%20Beyond%20Mountains%29.mp3?w=9a093238

West Coast (Wild Coast), South Island, New Zealand

The very windy ferry ride

We’ve been ruined. I don’t see how there is any drive in the world that could possibly beat traveling south along Route 6. The mountains were the backdrop to every scene on the South Island, and they were so omnipresent that I instantly missed them the second we touched down in our next, decidedly less picturesque destination. Here’s a quick tour of the the week long journey South.

Marborough (Wine Country)

Saint Clair

We managed to sample seven wineries in one day before quitting (there was no spitting). Marborough is known for its sauvignon blanc, but they also do a fair amount of Pinot Noir and sparkling wines (read: champagne). My personal favorite was No. 1 Family Estate who specialize in sparkling wine and Tim enjoyed Cloudy Bay. But the star of the day was really the weather. It was 80 degrees and not a cloud in the sky, making a lunch at Herzog among the vines seem a little almost heavenly.

A little Rose instead?

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Run Around

19 Nov 2010 2 Comments

by Robin in New Zealand Tags: , , ,

North Island, New Zealand

Beautiful Auckland

After a nice relaxing week in the Cook Islands, we met my Aunt and Uncle in Auckland who were determined to see as much of New Zealand as possible in two weeks. This meant we need to move fast to make our way to the South Island for the majority of the trip.

We flew in at 10pm at night with a bus leaving Auckland the next day at 4pm. Now, travelers frequently say Auckland leaves little to get excited about so it’s an easy city to say goodbye to quickly, and we didn’t mind the quick version of the tour.
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Where’s Wally: New Zealand

16 Nov 2010 2 Comments

by Robin in New Zealand, Where's Wally Tags: , ,

Hello South Island

Wally is hanging out with us on the Queen Charlotte Drive. The beginning of the Drive over looks Picton, the Port on the South Island where the Ferries come in from the North Island. The drive continues to wind around mountains with a view of the sea for around 20 miles (or enough to make both Wally and I a little car sick).

Under the Sea

13 Nov 2010 2 Comments

by Robin in Cook Islands Tags: , , , , ,

off the Reef of Rarotonga, Cook Islands

[Audio https://dl.dropbox.com/u/9901364/17%20Under%20The%20Sea.mp3%5D

going down

Tim and I chose the Cook Islands to get certified in scuba diving. There wasn’t any reason that we chose there to get our PADI license, other than it being the first stop on our trip, and we didn’t even have a great reason for wanting to get certified – but in the spirit of our travels we wanted to open ourselves up to as many new experiences as possible – and there’s a lot of cool things going on below sea level.

We didn’t set up the training in advance, instead the first thing we did when we got to the island was wander around and into the closest dive shop. In there, we met Courtney, an Aussie, who had the exact schedule we wanted for classes and was going to be our instructor. More

Watching the Wheels

08 Nov 2010 5 Comments

by Robin in Cook Islands Tags: , , , , , ,

In Rarotonga, Cook Islands

We knew roughly three things about Rarotonga before the plain touched down. It was sunny. It was small. It was in the middle of nowhere.

What we didn’t know was how lush and green it would really be. Tim turned to me and said, “um, I think we’re on the island from Lost.” It looked absolutely wild. And in a way, to a couple of Americans it is. This is a place where to walk 30 feet to the beach we pass goats and chickens.

Rarotonga is a friendly place as well, with only 8,000 locals and about the same number in tourists. It’s so friendly in fact that we couldn’t seem to use up our bus pass because people kept offering to drive us where we were going. More

This Time Tomorrow

31 Oct 2010 6 Comments

by Robin in Pre-Departure Tags: , , , , ,

The last week has been one of the hardest weeks of our life. We walked away from our jobs on Wednesday, moved out of our home on Thursday, and said good-bye to Tim’s family and our dog, Noosa, on Friday and drove down to PA. On the ride down it was surreal to realize we were really leaving so many people, places, and memories behind. In the planning process of a trip like this, it’s easy to spend time preparing for what life on the road will be like. But preparing yourself for what you are saying goodbye to is impossible to prepare for, and it hit me like a ton of bricks. More

Pack Up

25 Oct 2010 9 Comments

by Robin in Pre-Departure Tags: , , , ,

[Audio https://dl.dropbox.com/u/9901364/03%20Pack%20Up.mp3%5D

The thing family and friends ask us most about our trip is: How do you pack for a trip like this? So I have been excited to write a post showing everyone what our backpacks look like. There are a lot of wise sayings about packing, but my favorite is by Rick Steves. He says: “You can’t travel heavy, happy, and cheap. Pick two.”

I have been traveling light for years – Tim actually has more trouble with this then me, and claims his clothes are just so much bigger than mine (but that doesn’t explain why his toiletry bag is bigger). The thing that people also forget is that unless you’re going to Antarctica you can get most things wherever you’re going, so it’s sometimes nice to buy along the way too – and there’s no room for that if your packs are full.

all packed up

Step 1: The Pack
Tim and I both have Eagle Creek Switchbacks. They are backpacks that can also be rolled, in other words, my kind of backpack. They also have a day bag zipped onto the main bag. I have the 22, which when zipped into 2 pieces meets standard carry-on requirements. Tim’s clothes are a little bigger so he’ll be sporting the 25 and checking his (we need to put the liquids somewhere anyway). We bought these bags before going to Africa so they have been tested – and even though someone did try to break into them unsuccessfully they’re still in good shape.

Step 2: The Packing System

Have you ever noticed that no matter how organized your bag may look upon leaving your house, as soon as you open it the thing you need is at the bottom, and everything gets thrown out of the bag in the process of finding it? Well it happens to me all the time. Tim and I also have packing cubes for our trip to help with this. Mine is double-sided, so I can turn one side into the hamper as we travel. A lot of the other things we’re bringing are bagged, stuffed, and compartmentalized. More

The Way

18 Oct 2010 6 Comments

by Robin in Pre-Departure Tags: , , , ,

[Audio https://dl.dropbox.com/u/9901364/23_Fastball_The_Way_May_1998.mp3%5D

The Where and How

There are countless people taking trips like ours right now. A lot of them are blogging, tweeting, and sitting in hostels right now giving advice based on their experiences. In fact there is so much advice out there on “the right way to travel” that fights tend to break out in travel communities about things such as: how much to pack, how long to stay in places, how to travel in between them, and so on. Just like everything else in life, we take the advice we want to take and ignore the rest.

One of the things we hear over and over again is: don’t plan ahead. For people traveling long-term it makes sense to leave a lot of room for improvisation. But I’m also not necessarily the type of person who is okay sleeping in a train station if there are no rooms available in a town that we arrive in late at night. We’ve already run into issues trying to book rooms for New Years and at the top of a mountain, even when planning those two things months in advance. Of course, these were the two things I knew needed to be done early – I wasn’t early enough. So for this trip we are trying to keep a balance between preparedness and spontaneity.

The “Way” is roughly this: More

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