Back to the heat: Paihia, Bay of Islands and Cape Reinga, New Zealand

I was super bummed when I actually checked out my dates for my stop in New Zealand. It seems that with the travel days I only really had about 10 full days there. Then I started to do some research on what to do in and around Auckland and realized there is tons to do there and I had a feeling I wouldn't be disappointed.

New Zealand is absolutely gorgeous. As soon as you head north 20 minutes from Auckland you are all of sudden in beautiful country side. The way you travel around NZ, particularly if you're a solo traveler, is through the numerous bus companies around and book a package. I booked with Stray bus a trip that would take me from Auckland up to Paihia, a day trip to Cape Reinga, and then back to Auckland.

Here are some of my shots from the ride from Auckland to Paihia:

A picture of an 800 year old tree:

A quick stopover to take a ride in a glass bottom boat at a marine reserve. We saw sting rays!! 



Paihia (it was aight)



Paihia was really really pretty. The water is an unbelievable blue/green. For the first time I thought, "oh yeah, I guess this is the South Pacific".

After the third day of chillin on the beach I took a trip up to Cape Reinga. This is the spot where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific. The day was overcast so it was near to impossible to check out the water but I got a few good creepy shots.

A long way from home!

Our trip involved going to the sand dunes right before the beach to do some dune surfing. It was tons of fun but that hill was super hard to climb and took like 5 minutes to get to the top. Here are some pictures of the dune surfing and people eating it:

Then it was on to 90 mile beach on the Tasman side of the island. For all those who are curious, it isn't actually 90 miles long. Back in the day they knew that cattle could travel 30 miles in one day. Since it took the cattle 3 days they assumed that the beach was 90 miles long. What they didn't take into consideration is that it's much harder for cattle to walk on the sand as they use much more energy. The beach is actually about 55 miles long.

Some surfer enjoying no one in sight:

The trip was totally worth it although it was overcast. Don't let the pictures fool you - I got one killer sunburn that day because I didn't reapply frequently enough.

My last little adventure was a trip to the hole in the rock. (The picture above isn't the real deal, just another hole in a rock). I took a boat ride and saw some of the 144 islands in the bay on a very fast speed boat. Apparently it is the fastest in the bay and we went over 100 km per hour. Woo hoo! The experienced was enhanced by the classic rock playlist. Thank you to Matt and Jasmine for helping to sponsor the hole in the rock tour! It was soooo much fun and never would have done it if it weren't for their Christmas gift.

It was a short but adventurous trip to New Zealand! I can't wait to go back and check out the rest of the country. Now on to Sydney to catch up with some friends and more sun!

Much love,

Maggie

Auckland, New Zealand

I've landed! Well, to be honest, I landed well over a week ago. It's been incredibly difficult to write blog posts here as the internet is crazy expensive (like 4 USD an hour) and getting pictures uploaded is a nightmare. But here I am!

The flight from San Fran to Auckland was about 13 hours long. It really wasn't all that bad since I decided to watch as many movies as humanly possible. It was pretty funny to be in the midst of my 5th rom com to notice that in one of the scenes Jason Bateman is talking on his cell phone right outside my front door. I tried to tell the woman next to me and was about to yell out, "That's my old front door!" but of course, she was asleep. (If any of you want to check it out it's in the movie the Switch).

After traveling for a while in Spanish speaking countries, arriving in New Zeland was a breeze. I just asked people when I didn't know where things were, they understood me, and gave me the answer. Simple. Here are some of my initial thoughts about Auckland:

- The city is clean and smells like flowers!

- It's summer here and the weather is great, like 80's everyday

- The internet is way too expensive and free wifi is impossible to find

- Driving 20 minutes outside the city is like a different country

- All the women wear super cute clothes and I need to watch it so that I won't go shopping

That's it for now! Sorry this post is so short but I paid like 10 dollars to download pictures today! The next post will be all about my trip to the North of New Zealand.

Greta Goes Glocal

It's been a while! Thanks for staying with me during my travel break. It's been a great few weeks of seeing my family and good friends.

I arrived in New Hampshire during (surprise!) a snowstorm. I left NYC at 10 in the morning and got home at 8 at night so it was quite a journey. From then on it was full on Christmas mode before my siblings and siblings in laws came up to NH to celebrate. Our fam has increased significantly and it's a tight fit in the Hureau house with all of us there. Needless to say it was great to have everyone there and Nes (although his stocking didn't make the pic below, I promise it was there) came home on Christmas Eve after being deployed for while. Check out the holiday shots Jasmine took!

 With some of the cousins, with the sweetest new addition: Katherine. She is so darn cute.

 Brothers and sis:

Adjusting to being home was cake. It's amazing how simple it is to get back into the swing of things, watch ridiculous amounts of television, and do nothing all day long. Then all of a sudden, it's time to hit the road once more. My first (somewhat unofficial) stop was San Francisco. It's the farthest west I've been (I know, insane) and all of my friends rave about the place.

Believe the hype, people. San Francisco is great. While I wasn't the best tourist I did see some sights and managed to spend some quality time with some cool people. (If you are reading and I didn't get to see you I'm very sorry! I'll be back for sure to see everyone and do that damn Alcatraz tour that kept on selling out on me). A big shout out to those who took care of me and delt with my crazy anxiety the couple days before leaving.

It's hard to believe that the second half of my trip has commenced. It feels like yesterday when I boarded the plane to Bogota. I couldn't be more ready to get back to traveling, seeing some friends I've met along the way and catch up with those living abroad.

Here are some photos of the (very cold) San Francisco:

Funny story about this picture. I decided to let Grandma give me a fortune. The card said, and I quote, "A friend will urge you to take a trip. Don't do it. Your best interest lies in remaining at home. I'm depending on your good sense to lead you on the right path". Clearly Grandma doesn't know my good sense or me. Boo to her and her fortune.

 Very very excited:

 Yay! Fun streets!

As many of you have guessed, yes, I'm already in New Zealand. There isn't too much to report as the first 24 hours were spent sleeping off my crazy jet lag. But more soon to come!

Bad Country, Part Dos and Back to Nosara

Little point of clarification: Mal Pais means Bad Country. Many were confused, sorry, I meant to integrate the translation in the last post! (BTW the picture above is the view from our hotel on the beach, hollar).

So, Phil arrived in Mal Pais safe and sound and E.J. and I were happy to introduce him to the tranquillo attitude of CR and the beach. Most of the time we spent was watching the sun set or chillin with cutie dogs around town. The boys took to surfing a bit but I mostly just sat on the beach. I wish there was more to report but, really, we didn't do much! Our one activity was to find the Montezuma waterfalls. After a beautiful drive and a short hike we found the first of three waterfalls. I kind of freaked out about the hike (which, in my defense was a bit insane to do in wet flip flops) and talked the guys into throwing in the towel and we stumbled apon a deserted strip of beach and jumped in. Check out the pics that E.J. took of our trip!

Waterfall:

Our own private swimming spot, this was Phil's happy place:

This is my happy place:

The cousins are awesome and it was great to chill with them for a bit before heading back to Nosara. If you have the chance, check out E.J.'s pics on my picasa album: http://picasaweb.google.com/mahureau/MalPaisCostaRica#

My trip back to Nosara was simple and easy and I managed to stay in a hostel there for a few nights before crashing again with Sarah and a couple of her friends. They were so nice to host me (again) and all three have amazing energy and are doing great work at the Nosara Yoga Institute. I loved them so much that I took pictures of them being awesome on the beach:

It's time to move on from Costa Rica and go home for a couple weeks. My stop in CR was an amazing one and I definitely needed it after South America. I am so thankful for reuniting with family and friends and meeting new, great people. On my last full day in CR, Fred (pictured above) taught yoga on the beach at sunrise. It was my first offical yoga class and I was terrified but there were many perfect things about the experience. He first asked us to write a word in the sand and I of course chose "courage" because of the moment but also for the first half of my trip. He then asked those people to reflect on their training experience and I traced my steps to arriving there. Most of the work we did was partner based and Sarah and I did it together and then we jumped into the ocean. In so many ways it summed up my first leg of traveling. I couldn't be more ready to go back to NH with the family for a couple of weeks.



Bad Country with the Cousins Part 1

It was time for a little cousins retreat. E.J. was to rent a car and meet me in Tamarindo before heading off to the other end of the Nicoya peninsula. He was down to surf and I'm always down to beach so we made a good team. After a couple nights in Tamarindo we took to the road. The hours flew by because the views were spectacular. I had cruised around CR before but this was my first real exploration of the peninsula and it was amazing. Here are a few shots from the drive and our sweet ride:

E.J. and I had one night to kill in Mal Pais before we picked up Phil the next day and chose to stay at a sweet cabina in the middle of the jungle. At night all we could hear was the ocean and birds and in the morning, monkeys. E.J.'s insight was all the sounds we heard are what make up sound machines. Jungle, rainforest, ocean, etc. I didn't get a shot that would do the place justice but I tried my best:

Notice the computer in both shots - I made E.J. watch a movie because I hadn't been able to watch T.V. or movies in a loooong time. We had a very chill few days filled with beach and long beautiful rides and some quality cousin time.

Next up, another cousin comes to visit and a million pictures of sunsets.

Sarah and I find the beach

One of my oldest and closest friends, Sarah, and I were to meet in Costa Rica and travel a bit together for a few days before she was heading to the beach and second home, Nosara, to teach a yoga workshop. Since I had been to CR a bunch of times I was excited to show Sarah the non beachy parts of the country, the volcanos and rainforests and she in turn would show me Nosara a yogi and surfer haven that she had been visiting for 7 years. Needless to say our plan didn't work out exactly how we wanted it to . . . we arrived in Monteverde late in the afternoon and woke up the next morning to insane amounts of rain. Downpour. In fact, it was difficult for us to even venture outside to the supermarket. We decided that we would skip Arenal, La Fortuna and the volcano and head to the beach and nice weather.

It worked! Our 4 hour bus ride took the clouds away and we arrived in Nosara and the sun was shinning. Because were a day early we needed a place to crash for a night and Sarah´s friends were wrapping up their one month yoga teachers training. The two couples were incredibly nice and took care of Sarah and me like we were part of their family. I am overwhelmed with gratitude when I think of them and their kindness. They even sponsored me for a day and I splurged and bought a smoothie and stayed in a nice hotel in Mal Pais a few days later. They were all wonderful people who were at such an interesting place and I feel so lucky to have met them.

Sarah had a few days before she was scheduled to start her yoga training and took me to a graduation of the previous class. It was great to see this kind of subculture and I´m so happy to have experienced it with Sarah and got to know a different part of her life. Here is a picture of us post celebration:

Oh yeah, and I forgot to mention the ridiculously beautiful beaches here . . . we spent plenty of time relaxing and checking out the sunsets. Sarah´s two friends from college who were teaching English nearby came and visited on one of their last weekends in CR. We all chilled out for a day and they brought me back to their place for the night and took me in until I was to meet my cousin, E.J., in Tamarindo. Again I was fortunate enough to meet such incredible people who were so kind to take care of me! Kelsey and Mike are traveling for the next 6 months or so and have great karma coming their way.

As you can see from my previous posts, Argentina wasn´t the best time for me. It´s great to know that when you need something, it will come to you. I needed friends, people I was comfortable with, and kindness and I got all of it within a matter of a few days. 

Below are so pictures of the beach and Nosara. As always, feel free to check out all my picasa albums at   http://picasaweb.google.com/mahureau/NosaraCostaRica#

Beach cooler:

 View from a house Sarah and her friends rented for the weekend:

Next stop: cousins retreat with Phil and E.J.

Sad News from Home

I've been meaning to write this post for about a week and a half now and everytime I sit to do it I just can't find the words . . . but I have about two more hours until I jump into a taxi and head to Costa Rica and felt like I needed to post before leaving South America and Argentina, in particular.

Every traveller's number one worry is that they'll lose their passport, duh, it's pain in the butt and you can't leave the country you're in. Their number two worry is that they'll get a phone call or email from home that makes them feel like a world away from their family. Unfortunately, my mom emailed me a little over a week ago to let me know that my Uncle Peco (her brother) had passed away that morning. My friend Laura was, thankfully, still with me at the time so there was someone there to help me with my initial shock. Then I started to check flights online, find a way to get home so that I could be with everyone but soon came to realize it would be far too expensive and wouldn't even guarantee me arriving in time for the services.

In the past week or my family forward me some stories of my Uncle Peco and then my cousin Billy made an amazing blog to capture all of them and I was so happy that I've had the opportunity to read all of them, in full. Although it's different from the typical grieving process it seems to be working and I'm going to continue along those lines by sharing my two biggest appreciations of my Uncle Peco.


Many of you know that I think and talk in stories. I collect my stories and retell them constantly. I even have a place where I store all of my stories and rate them based on their category (my small world stories, my top ten stories of all time, my don't tell my parents stories, etc). I can spot a good story teller from a mile away based on the build up, character development and closing. I know that for a fact my Uncle Peco had something to do with my love and appreciation for good story. He was one of the world's best at telling, maybe even making up, and playing a part in a good story. Some stories he played the leading role. I can't tell you how many times I've sat around the dinner table and heard about Peco's crazy times at Villanova and some of the absolutely hilarious (and I would say brilliant) things he did growing up. Peco also had a knack for telling one heck of a story. His delivery was impecable. He was able to read his crowd and know whether it was time for a small anecdote or if people wanted to hear a full blown narrative including background, setting, etc. As the ringleader and one of the oldest in the family, there is no doubt in my mind that it was Peco that kept the storytelling tradition alive.

Another big thing I'll remember about my uncle is that he learned how to focus on the good things in life. He would light up when talking about both his grandkids and kids. I feel so fortunate to have spent time with my uncle at both of my siblings weddings this summer talking about how the grandkids were doing, how funny their personalities were, how they were doing in sports, etc. I know that it would have been easy for Peco not to focus on the good things in life, to be overcome with seeing people when they are not at their best. Instead, he chose to put his energy in the right place and, in my interpretation, value the right things. He managed to pass along this sentiment to all of his kids who carry out their love for their family everyday.

And while I sit and reflect, over 5000 miles away from many of my family and friends, those same two appreciation are what I'll take with me moving forward on my trip. First and foremost: life is an adventure and second: to focus on the good that's around you.

To making great stories and valuing the good in the world, Uncle Peco!

Much love,

Me