WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND

I was particularly pumped to visit Wellington after one of my favorite bloggers described it to me as "paaaainfully hippie and artsy" with a similar vibe to San Francisco. The capital city proved to be charming as hell. We had a great day wandering around...and stopping for coffee every 3 hours, still recovering from New Years Eve.

Fidel's (as in Castro) was our first stop for brunch on their sunny outdoor patio. They serve cappuccinos in bowls and therefore get 5 stars. 

Cuba Street was lined with darling little shops filled with items that are most accurately described as "twee". Lots of hand drawn animal themed decor and patchouli-hipster scented candles in Erlenmeyer flasks.

The Wellington waterfront is a busy port with a rainbow of shipping containers and ferries that travel between the North and South islands via the Cook Strait. The Cook Strait is named after Captain James Cook, the first Brit to set foot in NZ in 1769 and later go on to circumnavigate both islands. New Zealand was first SEEN (from afar) in 1642 by a Dutch explorer named Abel Tasman but he never made it to land as the Maori's spotted him and his men, attacked and scared them off. Spears and face tattoos are effective like that.   

Bit of a bold statement there, Wellington.  

Later on in the day, we took the cable car up to the Botanical Gardens. Sandy contemplated the reality of death but also how to maximize her tan on the way up, as seen in the photo above. 

Accessorizing with nature. 

Before a Malaysian dinner and gelato back on Cuba Street, we drove to the top of Mount Victoria for a good view over the whole city. The view from Mount Vic was great but we actually decided that if we spent the remaining two weeks of our trip at Kaffee Eis eating gelato, it would be worth the 9,000 mile flight to New Zealand so we HIGLY recommend a visit there if you ever find yourself in Wellington.

After that, we napped in our van for a few hours before catching a 2:30 AM ferry to the South Island. That's the beauty of living out of a van: home is where you park it. 

ROAD TO WELLINGTON

From Omokoroa, we had a long drive to Wellington  to make our late-night ferry to the south island the following day.  

Reputation-wise, the south island is understood to be far more impressive (it's snow capped mountains are legitimately insane) than the north....but the scenery of the north island is nothing to ignore. Sandy and I were constantly in awe driving through the rolling green hills of the country side. Vocab words that you rarely get to use in everyday life like "pastoral", "bucolic" and "idyllic" came to mind during this long drive and Sandy's reaction of: "HOLY HELL!", also summed up the feeling quite nicely. 

Parked on Lake Taupo.

Fueled by coffee and mixed nuts, we drove through the mountains, took a quick dip in Lake Taupo and made it to our Wellington campsite just in time for a colorful sunset. 

NEW YEARS EVE IN OMOKOROA

For New Years Eve, we headed to Omokoroa because my Kiwi friend Steve (who I lived with in Melbourne, 6 years ago or so) invited us to his friends house party. I was imagining a small Allston-style house party so Sandy and I were beyond thrilled when we pulled up to a super sick house on a Kiwi orchard (how appropriate), complete with a tent designated just for dancing. 

My favorite photo of Sandy to date. 

Sorry for the blurry photos but my camera was acting up and also, let's face it, that's usually the sign of a good night. We danced in and out of the rain to Fleetwood Mac and Kanye West, drank champagne and ate Tim Tams, heard best attempts at American accents, deciphered Kiwi slang, lit sparklers and fireworks and woke up next to the Kiwi orchard feeling like a mix of fantastic and like absolute hell. It was great to catch up with Steve on the past 6 years of life and see how the other side of the world throws a party. 

Note the gorgeous violet tree, dance tent and remnants of a slip and slide. 

Sandy sitting on our home. 

Steve and I, 6 years after we slept in a shed in St. Kilda, Melbourne. He let me crash there when I was broke and I paid rent with sandwiches from the cafe I worked at. 

After a lazy morning lounging under the dance tent, once again, we hit the road. 

CLIMBING THE MOUNT

While in Mount Manganui, we hiked up the sheep covered, beachside Mount for some pretty aerial views of the ocean and the  town. 

ROTORUA TO MOUNT MAUNGANUI

The few days before New Years Eve, Sandy and I made our way from Rotorua (a town of geothermal wonders that smells like rotten eggs due to the sulfur but you get used to it) to Mount Manganui (a gorgeous little beach city that's now one of my favorite places). 

Hot mud pools. Or something like that.

Adorable reminders to keep left on the road.

Picnicking at the Mount.

Sandy and Mount Maunganui. 

Sandy has quite a small head and I have quite a large head so together we kind of look like circus freaks. She has to stand about 1 foot in front of me in order to even it out as we did not do here. 

FUN FACT: The Mount is actually an extinct volcanic cone.

We had a couple of lovely picnic and ice cream filled beach days there making it the best volcanic cone yet. 

TAMAKI MAORI VILLAGE

While in Rotorua, Sandy and I went to the Tamaki Maori Village for an authentic New Zealand cultural experience.

The Maori's are the indigenous people of New Zealand and like Native Americans in the US or Aboriginals in Australia, they have very sensitive and complex history with the European settlers and have struggled to keep their culture alive. Racism certainly exists in New Zealand and the Maori people also deal with many economic and social obstacles so I was bit concerned that this "must see" tourist experience would wind up being campy and culturally offensive. Luckily, I was wrong and it was awesome. 

The Tamaki Village was founded by two Maori brothers. One sold his motorcycle to fund the venture and it's gone on to become the most award winning village in NZ, portraying the history and the traditional spirit quite realistically.

About 15% of NZ's population identify as Maori and about a fifth of those have kept the language alive and well. There's definitely a Maori influence in all parts of New Zealand culture, tribal tattoos are quite popular among everyone (even face tattoos! Which is always a surprise to see in grocery store), much of the Maori craftsmanship is featured in jewelry and their national rubgy team, the All Blacks, do the Haka (the traditional warrior dance) at the start of every match.

When doing the Haka warrior dance, you make your eyes wide, stick out your tongue and yell to intimidate others. I plan to use this method if I find myself cornered in a dark alley way or on a bad date. 

We learned about ancient ceremonies, Maori words ("kia ora" means "hi") and experienced a bit of their original lifestyle, warrior traditions and music. The best part was the authentic Hangi, the giant meal that's cooked for several hours using heated rocks in a pit oven deep in the earth. It was like a Maori Thanksgiving. There was even stuffing. That may not have been historically accurate but it was delicious.

WAITOMO GLOW WORM CAVES

After driving through a countryside filled with ostrich farms, Sandy and I made our way to the Waitomo glow worm caves for some black water rafting. Equipped with wet suits, helmets, inner tubes and 2 Germans, we explored the caves with our Maori guide.  

The glow worms are actually a "fungus gnat" but glow worm obviously has a much better ring to it. In the larva stage they glow to attract prey and after they emerge from their eggs, the females continue to glow even brighter but now to attract a mate. The things gals will do to get the attention of some bro, eh?

We crawled through tunnels, jumped off waterfalls (when Sandy was invited to do this she politely replied "that's not happening" but sure enough she did it!) and floated through the caves admiring the neon green glow worms. In the pitch black cave they look like a beautiful night sky, it was quite the experience. 

NEW ZEALAND ROAD TRIP: AUCKLAND TO PIHA

The day after Christmas I got the best gift of all.  My friend Sandy flew all the way from Boston to do a 3 week road trip around New Zealand with me! She skipped the 25th of December all together (it's fine, she's Jewish) to get here and we had a joyous reunion at the airport consisting of the kind of jumping up and down and high-pitched shrieks that only obnoxious American girls can provide.

We picked up our fully-equipped Spaceship camper van, had a big catch-up night in Auckland then hit the road in the morning for an afternoon at Piha Beach on the west coast. 

Lion Rock.

Piha is a little beach town that's famous for it's black sand, surf culture and intense waves (it's also where the reality show "Piha Rescue" is filmed).  We enjoyed the strong sun, a hike up the very steep Lion Rock, fresh fish and chips and the pretty horses.

This was Sandy's first ever camping experience and she just decided to go big by living out of a camper van for 3 weeks straight. What an adorable champ, look at her!

Our Spaceship camper van was awesome the whole trip. Driving on the left side of the road with the steering wheel on the right side of the car (and the windshield wipers/blinker sides reversed) was a bit of trip. We adapted quickly though, with only a few panicked screams of "left side! left side!" when turning onto an intersection. But that's all part of the adventure. 

AVOCADO PICKING

As I'm someone who began to think of herself as comfortably wealthy once I got to the point in my life that I could order extra guacamole on my Chipotle burritos without a second thought, it felt like the Kenny family lived next to a goldmine since their home neighbored an avocado orchard.

Equipped with mini tractors and a big bucket, Amanda, Carlos, Archie and I had a successful afternoon of avocado picking one sunny day in Te Puna.

Now I grew up in the rural suburbs  but the homegrown fruits and vegetables in New Zealand amaze me. Not only did they live next to an avocado orchard, but the Kenny family grew strawberries, lettuce, peaches, watermelons, beetroot, beans, tomatoes... everything! And they're not farmers either, they both work in marketing but just grow all of that right in their own yard. Apparently this is fairly common in New Zealand as the soil is super rich but I had no idea it was even possible.

To make salads at night, they would just go out and grab some vegetables, wash them off, chop them up and prepare the freshest and most delicious salad I've ever encountered. In the morning, I would just grab a handful of strawberries from the garden to have with my coffee. I used to be quite satisfied with myself eating "local and organic" when I would buy veggies from the farmers market in the parking lot behind Bank of America in Jamaica Plain so THIS just absolutely blew my mind. 

TE PUNA, NEW ZEALAND

When I arrived in New Zealand it rained for a week straight. While there were enough cute cafes and art galleries in Auckland to keep me fairly occupied, the big city was gray and I was thoroughly unimpressed. My friend Amanda rescued me just in time and took me to Te Puna, a little country town on the east coast. We stayed with the family she used to nanny for back when she lived in New Zealand and after 3 months of backpacking it was a welcome break to stay at their gorgeous house (next to an avocado orchard!) with their two adorable little boys, Carlos and Archie.

We started our stay at a holiday party at their families "bach" (summer home) and visited around Mount Manganui and Taraunga too, but mostly we ran around the yard (the boys can handle their mini tractors better than I can parallel park), enjoyed their garden where they grow their own fruits and vegetables (!) and had some epically meaty dinners. 

A hearty lamb dinner. 

Mount Manganui

We prepped for Christmas by wrapping presents and laying out cookies and coffee (Santa had a long night of deliveries ahead of him, it was a smart call on Carlos's part).  The following morning, the boys were thrilled to see Santa's footprints next to their outdoorsy presents that included mini wetsuits and little sleeping bag.  

I missed my family over the holidays but I had a nice little Kiwi Christmas thanks to Amanda and the Kenny family. 

12 HOURS IN SHANGHAI

After happily gorging on 12 hours of in-flight television on a plane ride across the planet (I haven't watched real television in 3 months! And I'm not one of those terrible people who would consider that an accomplishment. Plus they had HBO!), I arrived in Shanghai for a 12 hour layover. Beyond exhausted right before landing, I was planning on finding a cozy corner of the airport to pass out in but I immediately perked up as soon as the wheels hit the tarmac with the realization that I was in CHINA! 

After the customs guy assured me I was allowed to leave the aiport, I withdrew far too much Yen from an ATM, figured out how to get a train into the city and spent the afternoon wandering around downtown Shanghai.

The city is massive, looks futuristic yet retro and the best bits are packed with people and filled with smells of exotic street food. I ate killer street stir fried rice for lunch and got the best massage of my life at a very fancy and dimly lit massage place that felt like it was run by the Chinese Mafia. 

I took the Shanghai Maglev back to the airport which is a high-speed train that uses magnetic levitation to move and goes up 267 mph. It was awesome. It's the fastest commercial train in operation and in my expert opinion, I would say about 2 notches below teleportation. 

And now, onto Auckland.

BACK IN LONDON

Before heading off to New Zealand, I had a full week back in sparkly (and now wintery) London. It was a solid seven days of braving the freezing cold to enjoy the city's holiday festivities and learning that London is VERY serious about it's Christmas decor. 

The weather called for many indoor-activities, so we skipped ice skating at the Somerset House and instead checked out the "Me, Blondie and The Advent of Punk" exhibition at the gallery inside. Blondie is just such a crazy babe and the photographer, Chris Stein (her old boyfriend and bandmate) had a great quote about the exhibit: "Photographs exist outside of the feedback loop of our capricious thought processes. They ground the moment in some semblance of solidity."

A bit of Xmas shopping, a bit of hardware store shopping...

We made it to "Winter Wonderland" and "Winterville", 2 festivals in London that are filled with amusement park rides, bright lights, food, live music, dance floors and cinnamon-y mulled wine. 

My (very appropriate) last meal in London: tea + biscuits at Heathrow.

My last week in London topped off 3 months of hopping around the UK + Europe. The other side of the Atlantic surpassed my expectations, the cities and landscapes were lovely and the humans I encountered were even better.  

Now, it's off to New Zealand for a second-summer and a much anticipated road trip with one of my favorite Americans. (!!!!)

BRISTOL, ENGLAND

To make my way back to London (to fly to New Zealand!) I took a long weekend detour through Bristol, England. Bristol's a pretty city that's home to Banksy, many colorful houseboats, a fun music scene and some awesome restaurants.  

We got tickets for Beardyman (a one man triple-threat of a DJ/beatboxer/comedian) our first night there. His DJ set that included insane beatboxing was accompanied by trippy videos at Thekla, a great little venue that's actually a boat.

The houseboats in Floating Harbor (that runs right through the city) were bright and cute, a nice alternative to a downtown apartment. 

"Well-Hung Lover"

We hunted down Banksy works around the city and marveled at the boat-building going on right along the harbor but the four day visit basically ended up being a food tour through the city. 

The tour included: an Indian Thanksgiving dinner, awesome jerk-everything Carribean food at Turtle Bay (after watching Imitation Game at Watershed - amazing movie at an amazing theater) and butternut squash mac + cheese at a place called The Boston Tea Party, which I was particularly fond of (no bias there or anything).  

ON THE PENINSULA

Ryan, the Kiwi who can fix any bike and makes a mean mulled wine.  

Olivier, the Frenchman who taught me the wonder of camembert and honey for breakfast. 

Peniche Harbor

Daniel the Swede, whose love of surfing is only rivaled by his love of desserts.   

Brad, the mischievous American with beautiful ombre dreads.

At Bar de Bruno, the best cafe in Baleal. 

THINGS I LEARNED IN PORTUGAL:

1. Portuguese sounds like Russian.

2. When living in relative filth (camping) I turn surprisingly domestic. I suddenly felt an overwhelming need to "deep clean" the kitchen and would set the dinner table each night as though a tablescape is necessary when eating ramen mixed with tuna. 

3. Pangs of homesickness strike at surprising times. After ordering an iced coffee I practically flipped the table over in a rage when the server arrived with a tiny cup of espresso accompanied by tiny cup of ice. I was obviously expecting something that AT LEAST VAGUELY RESEMBLED a medium iced regula(r) from Dunkin Donuts: obscenely massive cup with at least 15 tablespoons of sugar. C'mon, Portugal. However, they did make-up for it with this. 

PORTUGUESE STORMS + SUNSETS

Since I was in Portugal during November, it wasn't always sunny surf weather. It was often chilly and rainy, making for some slippery bike rides and rather rustic igloo living. 

On the bright side, the storm clouds did make for some killer sunsets. There's a metaphor for life in there somewhere... but let's not get too deep and just enjoy the photos.