City girl. Traveling soul. Always hungry.
Before heading back to the states, we made a 3-day stopover in Sydney, Australia. After nearly 2 weeks bopping between New Zealand hostels we chose to end our travels at a real hotel—one of those place with private bathrooms and something to decorate the walls other than coat hooks and “house rules” stickers. It was... Continue Reading →
Lake Matheson was the destination for our morning stroll before driving on to Queenstown. Katie was anxious to get there as early as possible, citing the need to avoid those tourist-mobbed bus tours that kept following us throughout our travels. A loop trail leads to the lake, which rewards you with a glass-like reflective scene... Continue Reading →
Christchurch is one of two locations where you can catch the TranzAlpine train for the entire journey, with Greymouth on the other end of the line. Much like the Northern Explorer, the train makes trips between these two stops on opposing days. We booked this part of the trip long before any motels or car... Continue Reading →
The next day we made the journey from north to south—a 40 minute plane ride separated us from the southern island. Wellington’s airport was so small that security didn’t open until an hour before our flight took off. I made the mistake of waiting to get breakfast until we arrived, but after losing a battle... Continue Reading →
We planned for 2 nights in Wellington at the advice of a few people who had traveled there previously. It’s a foodie city that’s fun to meander through and not to be rushed. Also, I needed a night off re-packing our 3 suitcases. Mount Victoria (Mt. “Vik” per locals) is a 360-degree overlook atop a... Continue Reading →
It wasn’t the plan all along to take the train to Wellington. We had been messing around with travel routes and possible stopovers for a few weeks. The original idea was to drive the whole distance, but we heard that it could take upwards of 10 hours (more if you are still a timid left-side... Continue Reading →
It was absolutely pouring rain when we woke up, but I’ve come to learn that New Zealand’s weather can be rather bipolar. The day begins stormy and ominous and by lunchtime the sky is a piercing shade of blue. The air gets dryer the further south we go, so that freezing wind/blazing sun temperature shift... Continue Reading →
I’ve been anxious for weeks about driving in New Zealand. Neither Katie or I have ever done “left side driving”. I played a vision in my head on loop of careening into a medium or whacking a bicyclist. It is this paranoid daydream that drove my decision to purchase the super-ultra-mega-hit-anything-pay-nothing car insurance that agencies... Continue Reading →
Auckland is a good central city to start a trip, but my favorite part of it all was the areas surrounding it. When you travel enough, you start to become less enthused by big cities other than your own. There are enough inherent similarities in so many cities that you lose the intrigue of the... Continue Reading →
This trip has been a long time coming. Like crazy girls, we decided to cram finishing graduate school, finding a new apartment, and planning a 2.5 week trip on the other side of the world into the span of a few short months. Most of our trips begin with incomplete itineraries that we fill as... Continue Reading →
Chaos & Coffee Beans 