Travel Tuesday: Raglan, New Zealand

In the months leading up to our trip, my mom introduced me to a photographer, local to the Auckland area. Roger helped me focus and narrow down our destinations to a more realistic itinerary. 

The day we arrived, Roger was a saint and met us at the airport on Waitangi day before 6am. He drove us around Auckland showing us a few sights and helped us re-adjust to driving on the left side of the road. 

He treated us with a bag of New Zealand goodies including Pineapple Lumps, Whittaker's chocolate, Jaffas, and some sort of carbonated apple/orange soda. We polished off the entire bag of Pineapple Lumps in less than a day! 

On our drive from Auckland to Raglan, we tried Tip Top ice cream in Pokeno. They had some crazy flavors: orange chocolate chip, candy floss, tiger time, and hokey pokey. I decided I didn’t like hokey pokey (tiny balls of honeycomb toffee), but I did love the amount of scoops they offered - 12 scoops for $14 NZD. 

Thrift shops are called “opportunity shops” in New Zealand. I just love this spin on thrifting. It definitely is an opportunity for a great deal.

Ansgar describes Raglan as your favorite surf shop that exploded into a town.  When asked if they have sharks, an employee replied “we have heaps of sharks.” Gotta love the kiwi phrases. 

Ansgar went surfing at Manu bay where they have the longest left wave. Raglan is well known as a great place for surfing goofy. It was less of a tourist stop and much more a surfing requirement, as it was featured in the movie The Endless Summer. 

We had to try the real fruit ice cream (they're really into this in New Zealand). They made it each order with a funnel cone that held the frozen yogurt with a screw auger that forces it through. The end result looked like soft serve ice cream with fruit speckles.

On our way out of Raglan we drove to see Bridalveil falls. The height of the falls and vegetation were jaw dropping beautiful. Although the hike down to the base was only 10 minutes, I managed to get sunburned on my chest. It's a light burn but a valuable reminder to lather up, even for a quick walk. 

Location Scouting

Hello! I’ve decided it is time to freshen up this space of mine. I have plenty of travel adventures to share and oodles of photos. I'll share the occasional photo tips and resources too!

While most spring breakers were heading to a tropical location, I spent 10 hours driving in a torrential downpour to Death Valley. The storm continued throughout most of my 3 day visit. 

 

It was then I realized my love for travel/landscape photography. An excuse to travel to beautiful destinations, photograph them during the best lighting and then napping midday when the lighting isn't ideal. ;)

When I returned from Death Valley, I shared my photos proudly with my classmates. In the next few years, two of my closest film friends made the trek to Death Valley and shot footage for their feature length films. I like to think it was because I inspired them with my images. While sitting in the theater, watching their films on the big screen, I realized that I wanted to be a location scout for film makers. Doesn’t that sound glorious? 

Fast forward nearly 10 years and I’ve changed my scope to inspire friends, family, and future friends to experience destinations by sharing photos on social media in hopes that someday, they too will make memories of their own at some of these destinations. 

Be sure to check back next week for the beginning of my New Zealand series. Hope you have are having a lovely Wednesday!  

My Top 10 Countries

I'm getting the itch to hop on a plane again. Of course I want to go back to Italy, New Zealand, Australia, and Germany to explore more of the country and make friends with the locals.

I dream of traveling to these top ten places:

1. Thailand
2. Costa Rica
3. Spain
4. Brazil
5. Portugal
6. India
7. Norway
8. Greece
9. Iceland
10. Austria

Where is your next dream destination?

Right Now

Oh, hello! I figured I'd play along with Amy Tangerine's post. 

Drinking: water, like its going out of style.
Eating: Stuffed from dinner at the Park Chalet
Listening: to M83 - Hurry Up, We're Dreaming
Wearing: PJs!
Reading: Salesforce Fundamentals. Preparing for my certification test.
Feeling: Sleepy after a long day
Weather: Overcast & wet– 50 degrees
Wanting: to get my photos uploaded from this weekend for Project Life.
Needing: a little bit more sleep. I always end up finding just one more thing that needs to be wrapped up before bed.
Wishing: That there was enough light after work to run on the beach.
Thinking: I should stretch more often.
Enjoying: Being home
Loving: Project Life

What are you up to right now? Please join me. 

Exploring Southern Hemisphere - Sydney

Hello from down under! After a 17+ hour flight, I arrived at the Sydney airport.

I met a girl named Yvette from Alberta, Canada on the shuttle ride to my hostel. Everything is orange here, including to sofa I'm writing from. The staff here claim that the owner of the hostel is an 8 year old daucshaund that drinks out of a cup and prefers to be called Princess.

After a much needed shower, Yvette & I set out to take the CityRail (similar to Bart) to the closest beach, Double Bay. We got on an express train by accident and got dropped off in Bondi Junction, a whole stop past where we were trying to go. We decided to walk around a bit and passed by many decorated houses. Some had funny handwritten notes saying "out of candy, come back in 365 days."

We asked for directions a lot after realizing that our exhaustion was causing us to get further lost. I like to call this an adventure. We finally arrived at the "beach" which was a strip of sand next to a small harbour. Our feet were in a lot of pain so we took the bus back to Kings Cross which is right next to my hostel. I'm happy I'm only staying here one night since I'll be much closer to everything when I stay at another hostel in The Rocks.

We spent the afternoon people watching at a burger joint located right next to a gym. I've been struggling to stay up (since it is not even 9pm here).

Pyrex finds

What do I love to do on my lunch breaks, on the way home from work, and as soon as I wake up on weekends? Search for great deals all over! I get the biggest high from finding things that people have donated and cast away. I know there are plenty of others out there like me and I love it! 

I found these beauties all over the place. Some in thrift stores and some in antique collectives. I've been using instagram to share a lot of photos and decided that I should use my dream camera that I purchased in March to shoot some photos too! Here are some recent finds (mostly orange):

Autumn Harvest pattern

 Promotional Seville pattern from 1972

 Daisy (unknown pattern)

 Horizon Blue pattern

 New Dots

I admit it, I am obsessed with Pyrex. I'm spending a lot of time here & here. I've got the same question over and over again. What are you going to do with all of that? I use it! Its in my fridge, decorating my counter and in my cupboards. I make gelato with it, store fruit and snacks in them. They add that pop of color to my table that I'm looking for!

Summer Shenanigans

Sutro Baths, San Francisco, CA

I saw a post by Ali Edwards and believe that there should always be a summer manifesto! Summer has always been a favorite time of year to me. Here's my list for Summer 2012:

1. Take a ride on a boat
2. Go to a garage sale
3. Night tour on Alcatraz Island
4. Kayak in the bay
5. Make gelato
6. Try making Uncle Pat's ice cream cake
7. Surf
8. Shoot film!
9. Go for a bike ride
10. Spend time outside
11. Visit the Library
12. Make something with beads
13. Paint my nails bright colors
14. Go swimming
15. Visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium
16. Dance!
17. Free Friday Night Concert at The Boardwalk
18. Go to a Water Park/Theme Park
19. Eat Ice Cream
20. Movie night in the Park (in San Francisco)