Australia – New Zealand – Part 2

New Zealand

Our time in New Zealand was just one big highlight. We had decided (as many people do) to rent a campervan and get a relaxing taste of the North Island in the eight days we had. We rented the camper van from Lucky Rentals based on the recommendation of a friend who had used them a couple years ago. We were very pleased with their service and the van itself –– nothing fancy, but with a fridge, sink, small gas burner and the ability to transform into a bed each night that even Andrea could stretch out on AND fully stand up inside as well! It served us extremely well.

We decided not to go for quantity but rather quality and so we had chosen and booked all but one of our camp sites prior to arriving in NZ (the internet and an app called CamperMate being super helpful) and decided to spend two nights in each place which allowed us to relax and enjoy where we were instead of moving every day. We can't possibly describe every place but hopefully pictures do a little justice. Also check out our Trip Advisor reviews. 

Flying into New Zealand - almost right over our first camping spot - Piha and Karekare beaches

Though we just drove through Auckland, this was a good view as we came in to land.

Stop # 1 Piha Beach, on the black sand west coast, just an hour from Auckland, where we stayed at Piha Domain Camp with a visit to KareKare beach  (where The Piano was filmed) which was close by. We couldn't have picked a better place to begin our time in New Zealand. Andrea especially loved the black sand and the colors reflected off of it. Stunning!

Piha Beach

Karekare Falls

Stop # 2 Hahei on the Coramandel Peninsula where we stayed at Hahei Holiday Resort – and where we splurged a little and chose a beachfront camper site with direct sea views and beach access. The east coast is just as stunning and beautiful as Piha and KareKare but with white sand and a little less wild terrain. This is a large camp site with great facilities attracting families that have come for their holidays year after year. We just loved looking out at the water. We did walk down to the famous Cathedral Cove which was well worth it but passed on the over rated Hot Water Beach.

Namibia

In November I spent two weeks in Namibia for work. While I won't show any photos or talk about the actual work, I will say that the people we were privileged to spend our time with were so great - welcoming, resilient in spite of many challenges, fun, talented and inspiring  in so many ways. 

Namibia has been on Andrea's list of countries to visit for a long time. When Andrea and I were in South African in 2008 we strongly considered going to Namibia also but we didn't have enough time - so you know she was quite envious of my going on this trip. Which just means we'll have to go together some time in the future! So a few highlights and observations from this trip...

Highlight #1 before even arriving in Namibia was experiencing Delta's direct flight from Atlanta to Johannesburg, which is currently the worlds second longest direct flight - 14 1/2 hours going, 15 1/2 coming back! After a night in Joburg our entire team met up for our short flight to Windhoek.  And as we came in to land, this is what we saw...nothing - just stark beautiful landscape! As we came into land at the airport (which you can see in the photo below) we couldn't see anything - buildings, roads, people. It was amazing.

Namibia is a large country by size but small in population (only 2 million). Below the view from my room at our hotel with the hills that surround Windhoek.

Another view from the hotel with the Supreme Court buildings in the front and the famous Christ Church behind. 

Above - the team (Dawn, Walter and Molly) from the US in planning mode on the roof of the hotel prior to our work. We spent a lot of time together and worked really well as a team. Each brought different strengths that made it a joy to work together. And we had some good meals...(see below)

On the weekend Molly and I hit the road with Chameleon Backbackers to see the desert and especially the dunes...

Oryx

Above - our campsite, and the small wall surrounding it below - on which the cutest jackal jumped up and looked at us that evening while we were eating!

Getting up at 4:30 in the morning allowed us to experience sunrise at Dune 45 - which was spectacular

More Oryx...and dust and sand...

On our way to the dunes, we stopped in at the tiny 'town' (encampment?) of Solitaire - one of my new favorite places in the world...

After our work days were over on the second week, the rest of the team returned to the US. I stayed a few days longer to go to the beach - specifically, Swakopmund.  The landscape became more and more arid and stark until it looked like nothing would survive...and then wedged in between this desert terrain and the ocean is the holiday town of Swakop.

Huge wide roads

Surprised by flamingos on the beach

Breakfast to send me on my way...

Beautiful, stark and striking - so much to love and more stories to tell, but I know some have been asking when I would post on the blog - so this is a start and I'll circle back around and add some more.

Duncan

November 21-22, Cape Vidal and the beginning of Eight Days of Camping

Eight days of Camping!
Wow just typing that is kind of crazy...guess we have become hard core.
So we really have been hoping to get some downtime at the beach. We know we have been tired from being on the go every couple of days so we had read that the beaches in the Greater St Lucia Park were phenomenal, so we thought we would go camping there and get some good snorkeling and swimming in. The beaches are nice, miles of white sand, bordered by scrubby brush – it is too far south for coconut trees. Our first stop for the night was Cape Vidal and it was nice...small camping area, and then you walk over a hill and you are on the beach. We did meet a great couple who befriended us, gave us a light as we were cooking in the darkness, fed us some of their food and told us much about their experience here in SA.


Some random South African Camping thoughts and observations:

South Africans do the camping thing big time – no rv's to speak of but elaborate tents, campers, canopies, some even put up tarp fences around their site. There was a three day fishing competition going on while we were there so every morning around five the men would get going with their boats to see what they could catch.

South African campsite facilities are usually great. Great bathrooms with hot/cold water and showers etc. Places to cook, electric outlets – you have to have somewhere to plug your campsite freezers into.

So we are camping in a wetland park – supposedly one of the world's great ecotourist destinations. The town of St. Lucia – also in the park has issues with hippos roaming the streets at night – some 3000 hippos and rhinos and probably just as many crocodile's are in the park. Now technically the camp site is electrically fenced off – although not the part facing the beach – so the fence is sort of shaped like a U – which means any kind of animal – hippo, rhino, (of which we saw many) big cat's etc could wander onto the beach and up into the camp site. Just something to think about! Fortunately or unfortunately however you look at it, the only thing we had to contend with were...

Monkeys! If you camp in the states, you often have to use bear barrels or lock food up in your car because of raccoons. Here Monkeys are the issue- and monkeys are kind of like raccoons except faster – in fact a monkey is a raccoon with spiderman swinging skills which make them a pest. They will navigate any campsite and find any food that is available – and they aren't really scared of people. You can't leave anything unattended and good luck if you are trying to cook with them right there.

Fortunately in Cape Vidal there were other campers around who could beat off the monkeys and generally kept us feeling safe sleeping in our tent – which is really called a bug hut – it's great and keeps the bugs out which is nice but it is basically a mosquito net on a tent frame – we can see out and everyone can see in! Once we got to Sodwana Bay our experience was a little different. I'll let Andrea pick up the story here...oh and I also forgot to mention I saw three different snakes in one day – all poisonous. One small one I even tried to catch in a cup to bring back and show Andrea. Yikes!

Duncan