Mike and Michele’s Global Wanderings

Mike writes…

After an easy three hour drive on Wednesday, March 22, from Marahau and Abel Tasman National Park, we arrived in the small town of Picton (population 3600)…

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Hello! Michele here…

On March 17th, we made the 7-hour drive from Waitomo Caves to Wellington. I drove the first 3 hours and Mike drove the next 4 hours. The first part of the drive, like so much of the driving in New Zealand, involved going through mountain passes on twisty narrow roads. (I am still not used to driving on the left hand side of the road!) What is also true about the driving in New Zealand is that it never ceases to amaze us how stunning the scenary is. Driving in New Zealand is like constantly looking out over a scenic overlook. The country is beautiful everywhere. There are either moutains, oceans, lush forests, or green pastures filled with fluffy sheep alongside almost every road we’ve driven on.

We spent a few days in Wellington but didn’t do enough to write a blog so I will just briefly mention here what we did. First, we relaxed in our luxurious motor inn. Well, it was luxious to us. The motor inns in New Zealand are very high quality and the three we have stayed at, including this one, have had a large bathroom, spacious bedroom, cable TV, and little kitchen. Anyway, the two tourist activities we did while visiting Wellington included going to the Wellinton Zoo and visiting the National Tattoo Museum. We went to the zoo primarily to see the Tuatara lizard. This lizard has a third eye, is uinuqe to New Zealand, and has been around as long as New Zealand has been around. It is said to be closely related to the dinosaur. We viewed both a male and female Tuatara lizard in dim light since they are housed in a sort of darkened zoo area - and did you know the male Tuatara has no penis? See, you learn something new everyday.

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Mike writes... On March 15, after having a relaxing evening at the Ceder Lodge Motel in Hamilton the night before, Michele drove us the easy 1.5 hours to Waitomo Caves.  We were a bit too early to check into the YHA so we ... [Continue reading this entry]

Mike writes... On March 13, we left Whagarei and made the quick, 1-hour, drive up to Kerikeri. We arrived around noon and checked into the Kerikeri YHA (Youth Hostel) just outside of town.  Since they didn't have any double rooms availible, we ... [Continue reading this entry]

Michele here on March 26th....we are in New Zealand...16 hours behind East Coast time and 19 hours behind West Coast time in the states.  We left Aukland with the intention of driving north in our rental car to Tutukaka on March 11th. We rented our ... [Continue reading this entry]

Hello!  I know, I know, we haven't blogged in over 2 weeks. Maybe we hit the blog "wall"?! Michele here....Mike is on a computer next to me in an internet cafe on the south island of New Zealand.  We both have ... [Continue reading this entry]

Hello! Michele here.... We arrived in Singapore on March 4th. To get here we took what was supposed to be an 8 hour sleeper train. The funny thing is that the 8 hour train was exactly 4.5 hours late - meaning that we left Jerantut, ... [Continue reading this entry]

Hello! Its Tuesday, March 7th and we're in Singapore (13 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time and 16 hours ahead of West Coast Time). Michele and Mike here.... On February 28th we headed to central Malaysia where we planned to go treking in Taman Negara National Park, ... [Continue reading this entry]

Michele here... writing from Singapore on March 6th about our time spent in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.  Today, we have been away from the U.S. for exactly 9 months. Wow! To get to Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, we took a ... [Continue reading this entry]

Hi there...Michele here...typing this from a small village in Malaysia (I've given up on ever being caught up on the blogs.) This blog is about our last stop in Thailand. On February 19th, we traveled by mini-van from Phuket (island) ... [Continue reading this entry]