Beached As in Auckland

Travel is an amazing thing. It exposes us to new experiences, people, and aspects of ourselves that we don’t face at home. That being said, life on the road gets lonely.

That’s why it’s great to land with family and friends to soften the entry into a foreign country. Emma, Mick, Michelle, and Pete have been amazing.

Emma and her boyfriend, Mick cheerily picked Care and I up at the airport with almost no warning from us. My bad. We crashed at their pad, had an awesome home cooked meal, a kiwi BBQ and pool party, a guided tour of Auckland, and most importantly – they showed us the most New Zealand video in the world – “Beached As.” We use it to practice our accents.

Quick Travel Tip: Learn accents and phrases from popular movies, T.V. shows, and internet videos to blend in abroad. When you meet new people, parrot these phrases to show that you know everything about their culture.

After that, Pete and Michelle put us up for way too long at their beautiful home in Henderson – a suburb of Auckland notable for filming the Xena Warrior Princess series (I saw the lake from the title song and got pumped…Carolyn sighed).

They gave us advice for the van and travel in New Zealand, cooked great dinners, threw a nice happy hour, and showed us around town, including a trip to the championship midget and sprint car races. An American won, of course.

They even let us practice driving on the left side of the road. I only freaked out Michelle once.

Our trip would have had a pretty rough start without them; and we wouldn’t have such a great van –which I’ll talk about later.

They helped us “heaps bro”, but it was nice to connect with family and get a better sense of New Zealand. It’s nice to have someone looking out for us on the far side of the world.

If you were hoping for some information on Auckland that is actually helpful, check out my article on Helium.com - Auckland Travel Guide.

And click the photo below to view our Auckland Photo Album

Fiji has Stripey Fish...and Coral

For anyone who hasn’t been to the Octopus Resort on Waya Island, Fiji for a five day getaway during New Year’s Eve – here’s a dramatization. The names, awesomeness, and level of relaxation have not been changed to protect their identities.
	The heavy Fiji sun pours down from a cloudless blue sky on two sleepy figures strewn haphazardly across a hammock. His right leg droops off the side, toes nearly touching the sand. Her left arm dangles, fingertips twiddling a weathered bit of driftwood. The skin on the tip of their noses and tops of their shoulders are bright pink, like salt water taffy. An ocean breeze glides up the white sandy shore and contemplates rocking the hammock a bit, but then thinks of something better to do and wafts toward the tiki bar for a banana smoothie. The slightly pinker one speaks first. “Hey Care?” He can’t see through her red sunglasses, but he knows she hasn’t opened her eyes as she mumbles, “Yeah?” “Whadda ya wanna do today?” he drawls. The ocean breeze returns from the tiki bar bringing scents of banana and crushed ice as it pushes their hammock from side to side before racing down the beach to flip a woman’s straw hat off her head. The girl shrugs – more a suggestion of eyebrows arching, than shoulders actually moving – “We could eat again.” His stomach groans. It can’t handle anymore beer battered fish and chips and cheesy pasta. “Nah, I’m still pretty full from breakfast and lunch. What about snorkeling again?” She levers herself up and turns toward him, her face in the shade. He can see her eyes behind the smoky lenses. They’re open. “Yeah…but we’ve already seen all the stripey fish, and the coral.” He nods. “True." "We could kayak, hike, stroll down to the shipwreck, swim in the pool, or make shell necklaces again,” he suggests. “I’m still pretty tired from listening to Black Rose – Fiji’s number one band – last night. That was the best beach bonfire/volleyball party ever.” He nods his agreement. “New Year’s Eve was pretty sweet,” he says as he scratches the fresh scab on his left knee. No one told him how hard it was to limbo in a grass skirt. His eyes scan the sand around the hammock. Discarded palm fronds and broken shells liter the area underneath the checker patterned shade their hammock makes on the wavy dunes. That’s when he sees four small coconuts piled at the base of a tree near a lava stone the size of a golf ball. “We could play coconut bocce ball again,” he suggests. A hint of a smile crosses her lips and she turns back to face the sun. “Ok,” she murmurs. “But not right this second. I’m busy.” “Ok,” he agrees. They close their eyes and swing from side to side as the afternoon sun paints them a brighter shade of pink.
Carolyn and I loved our resort. Great people, great New Year’s Eve, great food, great fun, and it only cost us a few hundred bucks for five days in paradise.

Travel Tip: On any flight headed west - scratch that - any flight headed anywhere, demand a layover in Fiji. I’m pretty sure transferring in Fiji is faster than flying through Atlanta.

Now click the play button to watch our sweet montage song...

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What Not to Pack

We scoured the internet for tips. We read every travel blog. We grilled other backpackers for info. We even asked a magic 8 ball. But after all of that, Carolyn and I created a simple two step system of packing for a one-year trip to New Zealand: 1) Wait until the night before the flight to pack. 2) Bring tons of useless stuff. It’s working so far.
In addition to the pounds of clothes, jackets, computers, guide books, boots, sleeping bags, and stuff we actually need, here are a few items we just couldn’t leave behind:
Shawn: 1 black wool peacoat 4 pairs of jeans 2 huge metal belt buckles 1 white button down shirt 1 dental retainer 1 plastic brontosaurus named “Brendan.”	Carolyn: 1 Russian style winter hat 1 Italian leather jacket 72 Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups 1 4’x6’ American flag 17 pairs of underwear & 10 pairs of socks 1 pair of knee high suede boots

	Quick Travel Tip: If your bag gets tagged as “HEAVY - BEND YOUR KNEES” by support belt wearing behemoths whose job is to fling around super heavy bags all day – you messed up.
Travel experts may say don’t pack jeans, bulky jackets, mounds of chocolate, plastic dinosaurs, and more underwear than you can wear in a year – we’re not listening. In all my travels I’ve found that no one cares how good at packing you are. I don’t need tips on how to shrink wrap my t-shirts. We’re not impressed by your stupid “fknoon” (a fork, knife, and spoon fused together). Actually, a fknoon would be pretty sweet…
The old saying, “Take half the clothes and double the money,” is for crybabies. We say, “Take twice the clothes, almost no money, and a plastic dinosaur.” Do not forget the dinosaur. Like I said before, it’s working so far.