In my childhood, a few hours in the car brought out endless “are we there yets?” from me and my sisters. We mostly arrived at our vacations by plane or train. However, early on in our relationship, Victor introduced me to the joys of road tripping. I soon learned that authentically seeing a place requires observing the connections between all the map...
We thought we were prepared for our overnight tramp on the Tongariro Northern Circuit. We reserved a campsite at Oturere Hut months in advance. We checked out the map, and arranged to trim off a boring 7km from the 43km loop by parking at Whakapapa Village and getting a transfer to the Mangatepopo Car Park. We also planned to hit the trail at noon to avoid the...
Following an intense 10 day stretch of hiking New Zealand (Ben Lomond, Routeburn, Avalanche Peak, and Nelson Lakes) we took a quick Christmas break in Nelson before heading to Abel Tasman National Park. Abel Tasman National Park is New Zealand’s smallest. It is a coastal park situated at the top of the South Island and features golden sand, granite cliffs, and...
Following our exquisite but quick day hike of Avalanche Peak in Arthur’s Pass National Park we turned further north and headed towards Nelson Lakes National Park. Our goal was a final high-country Alpine hike and a nice campsite to spend the day before Christmas Eve. We found both on our hike/tramp of a modified Angelus Hut circuit, involving a long day on...
The Routeburn Track is the 2nd most trafficked New Zealand Great Walk (after Able Tasman, which has the benefit of year-round access). After our two-day, one night hike of the route, it’s easy to see why. Routeburn has gentle climbs, a beautiful 5 hour section of Alpine ridge, several worthy waterfalls, and a couple of worthy side trips to small peaks with big...
I have to admit, that in reading about New Zealand’s tramping and in staring at the map of the South Island Arthur’s Pass National Park remained a bit of an anomaly. Truthfully it appears awkwardly wedged between Nelson Lakes to the North, Aorokai/Mount Cook National Park to the South, and the Franz Josef Glacier region to the Southwest. Car campsites...
After we cooked ourselves a Christmas breakfast feast in our hostel, we finally got around to composing our thoughts about the second half of our Indonesia trip. We had so much more to say about our month there! After all, Indonesia is Mica’s favorite country so far (and here is why). This post will cover our time on the islands of Lombok and Bali. For a...
We just finished spending a full month across four different islands in Indonesia—our longest stint in a single country so far. Despite the time here, however, we really only scratched the surface. Indonesia is vast. It has more people than America and features a sprawling diversity across its 17,000+ islands. It is an archipelago in every sense of the word. We...
Queenstown was our first stop in New Zealand and we absolutely loved it (as you can tell in our post our various recs of what to do in town). And nothing was better than our introductory hike in the Remarkables range to the top of Ben Lomond mountain. It’s a perfect introduction to New Zealand’s Southern Alps. On a good day the 360 views stretch out over...
When we landed in Osaka, our first stop in Japan was Kyoto. While the city is filled with beautiful temples and Shinto shrines, we struggled to adjust to its totally foreign rhythm and culture. We were staying at an isolated Airbnb without the benefit of a hotel concierge to call places in Japanese or make local recommendations. However, by the end of our 5 days in...