After landing at Sydney airport and taking the train downtown, we climbed the stairs up from metro tunnels at the Circular Quay Station to a bit of a culture shock. There appeared to be more people out enjoying the beautiful Saturday afternoon in Sydney Harbour than we likely encountered in all of our time in NZ. We stayed at the Pier 1 Hotel, a restored 20th Century warehouse on the wharf right beneath the iconic Sydney Harbor Bridge – an ideal location with the best breakfast buffet ever, a…

Our time in New Zealand was “sweet as” according to the local slang. In other words – rather good. After our time up north of Auckland, we headed out on the Coromandel Peninsula on the east coast for a few days at Hot Water Beach and Cathedral Cove – one of our favorite beaches so far. Hot Water Beach is one the few places where a thermal spring bubbles up from the sand and allows you to create your own hot tub on the beach when the tide…

It is unanimous – we all fell in love with New Zealand from day 1.  In fact, we can’t figure out why everyone isn’t already living here. After landing in Auckland we drove north and took two days wandering around empty beaches and exploring random roadside hikes before we reached the Bay of Islands.  We feel like the areas we have visited are the perfect blend of the San Juan Islands, Scotland and Hawaii. Seriously, why isn’t everyone living here again? We took a quick detour to the…