The Managed Bonk

Part 3 of this memorable vacation took place in Australia.  We departed from Queenstown on Thursday, February 15 and arrived in Sydney in the evening.  With only one night there, we went straight to the Opera House (via the botanical gardens), which was on Julie’s bucket list to see. Sydney Opera House We ate a nice dinner downtown and crossed the harbor to our Airbnb.  In the morning we woke up to this view from our balcony. From across the Harbor At the Tarawera Ultra the previous weekend, we met a lot of people from all over the place; two of those people happened to be from Sydney.  I asked what they would do if they only had 24 hours in town - luckily, both guys independently said to take the ferry to Manly Beach, so we had our to-do item set.  We woke up early on Friday and ran across the bridge t o the wharf. ( VIDEO ) I promise we weren’t the only ones doing this From there we took the “fast ferry” to Manly and enjoyed a couple hours there before having to reverse cour

After a stressful experience in the Auckland (Madhouse) Airport on Monday, we were relieved to make our flight to Queenstown and get there before lunch.  I fed an ugly dog some of my Bangers and Mash. One of their only failings: NZ does not make good sausage A 2-hour drive and we were in Te Anau where we had an Airbnb for 3 nights.  We didn’t have a ton of time to hike but we walked along the beach at Doubtful Sound. Doubtful Sound - I don’t know what either word means in this context  Then we did a short walk on a random loop we found by a river. Balloon Loop, I think We knew the big fun would come in the next two days anyway.  Before leaving for the South Island, we didn’t know which trails we’d choose yet, but I ran with a couple guys in the Tarawera 102k that both highly recommended the Kepler Track.  With the weather looking much more ideal on Wednesday, we opted for the Routeburn Track on Tuesday.  It was socked in with clouds but still a great experience.  Best part was a 600-fo

Leaving the airport in Auckland, it was my first time “driving left,” and while I was good about being in the right place and diving into the roundabouts, I might’ve hopped a curb or two as I drifted left in the narrow lanes.  Meh, it was a rental. Takes a minute to get used to About an hour after leaving the airport, we were hit the trails for the first time in New Zealand.  And we found a beauty! 15 minutes of NZ hiking uphill = picture above The next day we visited the Coromandel region to the north, to climb The Pinnacles.  Also an amazing hike; it’ll probably rank very highly on our top 10 list when we revise our list of favorites after this trip (a routine post-vacation exercise for us). At the tip top  That night we drove to Waimarino to do a glow worm kayaking tour.  That was pretty neat - you couldn’t really take worthwhile pictures of the glow worms but just imagine thousands of greenish glowing dots along the sides of a narrow channel of water.  T