West Coast USA 2005: Day 1

May 2005

After a long flight from Sydney (on United), we landed in one of my favourite US cities, San Fransisco. We stayed at a B&B I had stayed at in 1997, and after checking in we caught the tram down to the Wharf area for a lunch of Chowder in a sourdough bread bowl - yum oh!

Stay

Golden Gate Hotel on Bush Street. Always clean, always friendly, inexpensive compared to the rest of San Fransisco and in a convenient location

Eat 

Uncle Vito's Pizzeria also on Bush Street, and still there apparently.

Do
Catch the Cable Cars, there's one not far from the hotel
Fisherman's Wharf for seafood, including the famous chowder
Pier 39, see the seal colony and a great place to people watch

West Coast USA 2005: An Introduction

May 2005

The main aim of this trip for me was to spend time with my aging Grandmother, DH required a bit of talking into, he had some stereotypical ideas of the US, big cities, loud people, big food and didn't turn around until I shared my ideas of our itinerary and the vast beautiful outdoors that the US has, he was sold.

The downside to these posts will be I didn't keep a trip diary, so I've reconstructed the details from the photos I have and the scrapbook I made on our return. Meaning there's not a whole lot of details for those of you looking for specifics.

The upside, is this was our first major trip with a digital camera, the technology has changed a lot since then but it was really the first time we took a large numbers of photos, because we didn't have to print them all and could edit them as we went!

Tauranga and White Island, New Zealand

May 2011

We took the 3 hour drive from Auckland to Tauranga, where we stopped for dinner at Horny Bull's along The Stand which is a street along the harbour with restaurants and bars, before heading to Papamoa Beach to check into our room at the Casa Del Mare.

The next morning we were up early for our 1 hour drive south along the coast to Whakatane to take our boat trip to White Island, New Zealands most active volcano. It was a gorgeous sunny day and the boat trip of 1 hr 40 minutes went smoothly. Once landed we were split into small groups and given a guided informative tour of the island stopping at various points for photos and overall spending 2 hours on the Island.

After boarding the boat again, we had a "light" lunch and saw the rest of the island via boat, before heading back to port. Along the way we came across a pod of dolphins (about 50 odd) playing in the water.

Once back at Whakatane we headed back to Papamoa beach and the B&B, stopping at Kiwi360, which is a kiwi fruit farm, which during the day has tours of the working farm (it was too late for us).

That night we had a pub dinner at The Boulevard, lamb shank for DH and ribs for me, before heading back to our room.

Stay
Casa Del Mare B&B, Papamoa Beach - we stayed in the Paris room, but had the whole area to ourselves as there wasn't anyone in the Rome room

Eat
Horny Bull, Taurunga - a steak place, although DH and I didn't have steak, although the beef salad and the pork were good!

The Boulevard, Papamoa Beach - a local pub, with large, hearty meals

See
White Island Tours, Whakatane - a great tour, a little bit $$$, but nothing like the helicopter tours, which is the only other option to get on the island

Kiwi 360, Te Puke

Mount Maunganui, New Zealand

May 2011

After a late cooked breakfast at the B&B, we took the short drive to Mount Maunganui. From here we took the 3.8 km (return), 235 m ascent to the summit of Mount Maunganui. It's a difficult, steep climb but well worth it for the view.

After walking down, we stopped for lunch at The Oceanside cafe, where I had the lamb burger and DH had the fish and chips. Before taking the trip back to Auckland.

Wish List: Mungo National Park

They have a picture of the Wall of China in Mungo National Park, NSW, Australia in the trains I catch to the airport. It looks stunning.

Photo Credit

Too bad it would be about a 12 hour drive each way from where we live, not exactly the short weekend type trip I was hoping for :(

Of course there is a lodge in the area, and when I first mentioned to DH that I wanted to visit here, his words were "for the lodge?", but no DH the lodge would just be an added bonus!

Next on the list

The main reason I turn up to work is to have my next holiday. Being DINK it's a priority for me, although I think DH just goes along for the ride. I also love to here what others have planned in terms of travel.

So what's next for us?

1. Lord Howe Island, Australia

I caved basically. And with the possibility of views like this, who could blame me?

2. Brisbane, Australia

I haven't been to Brisbane for a holiday since 1988, and I've only been there limited times for work. The plan is to go for the NZ and Australian Bledisloe Cup match. We'll see if a, we get tickets and b, we actually go. But some of my fondest memories with DH are at Bledisloe cup match's (perhaps because even though Australia hasn't held the cup since we've been together, Australia has won at least 50% of the matches we have attended).

3. Southern South America

We get to visit a number of dream locations at once, and while our original plans of adding Mexico and Cuba didn't pan out I still think our itinerary is envy worthy. It will be interesting to see what the highlight will be, will it be sunrise over Machu Picchu, snorkeling in Galapagos, the dizzy high of La Paz or the Moai on Easter Island?

4. Cook Islands

Back to the old dependable Rarotonga. How many people can claim they get to visit their MIL on a tropical island as exotic as Raro. Hopefully we might add another one of the outer islands such as Mauke or Aitu as well.

5. Who knows

The options are endless, and needless to say my list is long!

Bay of Fires Walk: The good, the bad and the ugly

April 2011

Before and after booking our trip I found it hard to find many reviews about the Bay of Fires walk or area, Tripadvisor was extremely limited and even googling training plans it was hard to come up with much, so I've put together my (not DHs) good, bad and ugly, so that you might have another resource when trying to decide if it's the right thing for you.

Good

• The scenery is stunning, it's one of the many locations where the photos you find online (including here!) don't do it justice, it really is that good

• The isolation. There's something special about there only being 12 people on a stretch of beach in Tasmania

• The weather. I understand it can get hot in the summer months, but we only had a bit of rain and the tour company really does supply you with the right packing list and kit
• The food. I love taking food shots, but the food was so good I didn't get any but what was for lunch on the last day. Breakfast and dinner are cooked and served to you, lunch is a spread that you pack in your lunch box for the day of walking. The food was delicious, in particular the salmon you have on the first night and the roast vegetable salads we had for our last lunch.

• The lodge. In hindsight I should have skipped day 3's activities and just chilled at the lodge. I could have easily spent a week just at the lodge.

Bad

• We had been running 5 k twice a week, cross training with a PT once a week and then doing a 10 - 16 km walk every second weekend. This was not enough, towards the end of each day both DH and I struggled. My tip would be to do more beach walks with a pack (more on the pack coming up), we only did one beach walk, and never carried more than 2 kg on our backs
• The pack. In all fairness DH weighed mine on the first morning and it weighed 20 pounds or around 9 kg, which isn't too bad, and I used everything in my pack except my swimming costume (which would have weighed very little). But we didn't train with a pack and that was a mistake.
• The amount of food. I think is due to the fact that I'm overweight as DH didn't have an issue, but there were times where I didn't feel satisfied. I got around this by packing extra bread for lunch.

Ugly

• It was 38 km over 4 days. And while that doesn't sound like a whole lot we weren't as prepared as we thought. If your feeling the first 2 days of walking then I recommend you skip day 3's activities, because it's really more than a stroll and a canoe. Really that's my only "complaint", that I wish someone had given us more of a guideline how to prepare. Now we just have to figure it out for the Inca Trail at the end of the year....

Resouces

Some of the reviews/write ups that may be helpful

Mr and Mrs Smith

Sydney Morning Herald

Australian Traveller

The Age

Bay of Fires offical site