Category Beer, Wine and Alcohol
New Zealand/Australia 2024 – Whanganui, Part Two
January 5 – 7, 2024 On the way back to the house in two cars, ours made a brief stop at Cooks Gardens, a multi-purpose stadium that is currently used mostly for rugby union matches, athletics and cycling. The main stadium, known as Westpac Stadium, can hold 20,700 people with 3,500 covered seats and while […]
New Zealand/Australia 2024 – Whanganui, Part One
January 5 – 7, 2024 Our bus ride today would be one of the longest of the trip, requiring that we head west to Hamilton, and then turn south for Whanganui, our eventual destination. It would take us over seven hours given the number of stops that the bus would be making along the way, […]
New Zealand/Australia 2024 – Tauranga, Part Two
January 2 – 4, 2024 We finished up at the Redwood Grove and motored a short distance to the Living Village. It is a semi-rural geothermal area in the Taupō Volcanic Zone that was the site of the Māori fortress of Te Puia, first occupied around 1325, and known as an impenetrable stronghold never taken […]
New Zealand/Australia 2024 – Tauranga, Part One
January 2 – 4, 2024 We finished at Winona Forever and called a couple of Ubers (Auckland didn’t have any large enough for all five of us) to get us to the Sky City Bus Terminal on Hobson Street, where we arrived soon after. This, our first interaction with the bus system, would be mildly […]
New Zealand/Australia 2024 – Auckland, Part Two
December 28, 2023 – January 1, 2024 Our first full day in New Zealand would turn out to be an exciting one, with a long and exciting e-bike tour in the morning capped off by a nice dinner and then trying to manage to stay awake until midnight. It was a challenge all around but […]
New Zealand/Australia 2024 – Auckland, Part One
December 28, 2023 – January 1, 2024 The Christmas holiday arrived, and we hosted this year as there would be a very short turnaround between the 25th and our flight to Auckland on the 28th. I met with my eye surgeon on the 27th who confirmed that the blood was clearing out and all looked […]
West Coast Fall 2023, Part Two
October 10 – 19 The next day, Friday, Kristen, Brian, Joanna, and I took off for Muir Woods National Monument. Part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, It protects 554 acres of which 240 acres are old growth coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) forests, one of a few such stands remaining in the San Francisco […]
West Coast Fall 2023, Part One
October 10 – 19 October rolled around and we planned a three week road trip that would take us to Oakland to celebrate Jessica’s milestone birthday (I won’t reveal what age that is), Kamp Angst, Bishop, Henderson, Meadview (to visit 90 plus year old Uncle Dick), Flagstaff, Sedona, and Tucson, giving us lots of opportunities […]
Cisco Fest 2023 – Portland, Part Two
September 26-28 We continued east a quick ten miles on Interstate 84 to the Bonneville Dam and Cascade Locks complex, a site I’ve visited before and look forward to each time. At the time of its construction in the 1930s it was the largest water impoundment project of its type in the nation, able to […]
Cisco Fest 2023 – Portland, Part One
September 26-28 After our return from Peru, we enjoyed a couple of trips close to home, including one to Oakland to see the kids and little Gemma, got caught up on our bike riding, and generally enjoyed being at home for a stretch. Unfortunately, towards the end of August, I suffered the beginning of what […]
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