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So, it's about to crazy here. I got Pat a surf board for his birthday last month, and then this week I bought myself one because I didn't want him having too much fun without me. I pick my board up on Friday and I cannot wait! Pat and I have gone surfing twice, once in Hawaii and once in New Zealand. As usual, Pat is a natural. It's been 6 years since the last time Pat had been surfing and already after going out a few times, he's light years beyond my skills. Right now, I'm just getting really good at not drowning, which is key. In the spirit of this new adventure, I wanted to share some really cool surf spots around the world, and not all of them are where you might think, like this first one... 1. Surf Pool at Wadi Adventure- United Arab Emirates I'm sure surf purists are skeptical, but it's considered the future of surfing. Plus you don't have to worry about sharks. That sounds like it's worth checking out to me! It's considered the best surf pool in the world. If you find yourself in the neighborhood, check it out! 2. Raglan, New Zealand Raglan is famous for it's world class long left hand break. If you've seen the move Endless Summer, they made a point to visit this legendary surf spot. So, while we were there, we decided to check it out for ourselves (Check out our post on surfing in NZ). Just our luck, there were no waves that day. But Raglan also has beautiful black sand beaches that are always worth a visit. 3. Oahu, Hawaii There are lots of places on Oahu that are great for beginner surfers, but on the North Shore when the weather is right, you'll get some of the biggest surfing waves in the world. While we were there they were having the Quicksilver Eddie Aikau surf invitational. It's an invitational partly because there's only so many people in the world who can surf these waves. It's pretty spectacular to see. I think it's safe to say that I will not be out on any waves like that anytime soon! 4. Port Orford, Oregon You might be thinking to yourself, isn't it kind of cold to be surfing in Oregon? And you'd be wrong. Yes, you'll want a wet-suit, but you're going to love learning to surf in Oregon. Whenever I see surf videos and there's hundreds of people fighting it out to catch a wave, I think how horrible that must be. Here in Oregon, we have lots of great surf spots for beginners to experts and you'll have the waves and the beach mostly if not completely to yourself. I don't know about you, but when I'm falling and looking like a klutz all day, I don't want a lot of spectators. Port Orford has a nice sandy and pretty protected beach that has lots of nice little waves for learning on. 5. New Buffalo, Michigan Yes, you read that right, Michigan! There's even surfing in the Midwest. Winds blowing across Lake Michigan can create ocean like waves and having you paddling out in no time. There's a pretty dedicated group of surfers there, so you're bound to find someone to show you the ropes.
It just goes to show you that, no matter where you are, you can probably find some surfing fun not too far away. Where are your favorite surf spots, even if it's just to watch? I hope you have some fun plans this 4th of July weekend and this summer if you are elsewhere in the world. Wherever you go, travel happy! Skeeter
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Kia ora Happy Travelers! For you non Kiwi's, "kia ora" means hello and is suitable for starting our guest post today which is all about a Kaikoura, New Zealand. This post is coming to you today from Luke Marlin of Backstreet Nomad's Anti Travel Guides. Luke works a regular 9-5 job, and his salary he calls his travel fund. He and his wife spend most of their time in negative annual leave due to this expensive yet incredibly rewarding hobby. Luke travels for 3 reasons: becoming immersed in a different culture, finding the less obvious attractions, and for hectic bragging rights back home. He is the author of Backstreet Nomad’s Anti Travel Guides, available on Amazon and on his blog www.antitravelguides.com. You can also follow Luke on Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter. It's the perfect example that you don't have to quite your job and abandon your family to see the world. Not only that, but he's got a love for New Zealand. Anyone who's cool with New Zealand is cool with me! I'm especially excited about this post because, although Pat and I covered a ton of ground while we were in New Zealand, Kaikoura is actually one spot we didn't make it to. From Luke's pictures it seems we definitely missed out. So, enough of my blabbing on, let's here from Luke! New Zealand is a place that is very popular with, among others, Australians and (evidently) the Chinese. Not to generalise, but the Australians travel in campervans and the Chinese travel in tour buses. Being Australian I opted for the former and spent 3 weeks driving the coast of the New Zealand South Island. Not just some of the coast, but pretty much all of it. In the North-east coast is a small town called Kaikoura, a small seaside town of about 2000 that is well known for its fishing and whale sightings. Kaikoura is a very cute little town but the beauty lies in the mountains that dominate the landscape at a very close distance. The name Kaikoura is actually derived from the Maori words for food (Kai) and crayfish (koura). They were pretty adept those Maori because there are a lot of crayfish in the ocean by Kaikoura. In fact there are a lot of marine creatures in the sea because Kaikoura is very uniquely located in our world. Because these mountains are so close to the water they essentially continue descending just off the coast at a similar grade. In only a couple of hundred metres out to the sea the sea floor can drop to over 2000 metres (6500 feet). The currents that this causes attracts many small fish which then attracts bigger fish and whales. The whales dive for food and come to the surface to breathe and it is these whales that have brought Kaikoura into existence. Initially whaling was the big industry, now the whales attract tourism. I was of course a part of this because I booked a scenic flight to view a whale as he comes up to breathe. There are also boat tours available but I figured the scenic flight would be quicker (the whales don’t actually stick around for very long) and we’d also be treated to seeing the town, peninsula and mountains from the air. I tell you, we almost didn’t see a whale, and while that would have been disappointing, it would not have been a deal breaker because seeing the mountains from the air was just magnificent. Interestingly enough, coming into land was actually somewhat of a highlight as this brought us back closer to the mountains which made them seem even more immense and the landing field (yes, field, not a strip) was right by the water. So we had water to the left and mountains to the right. An unforgettable experience. Kaikoura is also home to 2 seal colonies out on Kaikoura Peninsula. These can easily be seen from the cliffs above on a 2 hour nature walk, or you can actually get quite close to them by taking the low road and walking out near the rocks they are laying on. Don’t expect too much movement though, the seals spend most of their time out at sea fishing and come to land to rest and recover. Still, occasionally one seal will piss off another and you’ll hear them barking, which causes some excitement. At the colony that I visited there must have been at least 30 seals resting. Be careful not to get too close though, over jagged rocks they are much, much quicker than you! Kaikoura is a beautiful town and I would say it warrants at least a full day and night. If you arrive in the evening you can be up early enough the next morning to either go on a whale watching cruise or scenic flight. Both are great options depending on your preference, budget and time restriction. Have some fish and chips for lunch - there are plenty of vendors to choose from - Kaikoura is known for its blue cod so keep an eye out for that, it won't be hard. After lunch drive out to Kaikoura Peninsula. There are a couple of walks along the clifftop that will offer some great views of the ocean and the seals above. If you park at the northern car park the steps will lead you up to the path and loop back in about 2 hours. Or if you’d prefer to have an up-close encounter with the seals (but not too close, remember) ignore the steps altogether and just follow the water around the point and you will see the seal colony after walking for about 15 minutes. Kaikoura was one of my favourite places I visited in New Zealand because of its incredible beauty and the natural wildlife that was so accessible. If you are heading to the South Island make sure to stop by.
_________ Wow! Pat and I were talking the other day that New Zealand might be creeping up on our list of places we need to go back to soon and I'm pretty sure we're going to have to add Kaikoura on our list of places to see the next time around. Thanks to Luke with Backstreet Nomad's Anti Travel Guides for sharing his beautiful pictures and tips for a visit there. If you want to see more of what he's up to (and I know you do), be sure to check him out on Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter. As always, thanks for stopping by, have a great rest of your week, and don't forget to travel happy! Skeeter Pat and I get a lot of questions about how we managed to spend nearly a year living abroad and as luck would have it had money in the bank when we got back and managed to buy a house 8 months after we got back. Here are a few of the things that we did that made it all possible. There are other ways to do it, we met a guy in Christchurch that had been traveling for a long time, but he had to stay in homeless shelters at times because he ran out of money. Don't do that! I've never slept in a homeless shelter, but I imagine it's not great. Here's how to avoid that and have fun at the same time. 1. We sold everything. People thought we were crazy to sell all of our stuff. But how many people in there mid 20's have irreplaceable stuff? If all that's standing between you and going abroad is selling that old futon and that blender you never use, sell it! You can always get a new blender when you get back and decide for a week that you want to really get into smoothies.In the end we had just a handful of boxes that we stored at his parents house with important things. Don't be afraid to get rid of everything. We sold our dishes, our bed, mountain bike, tv, game counsels, couch, snow boards, our cars...basically everything anyone would want or think they want. I even sold 2 giant bean bags for $20 to a weird guy in a Geo Metro. How we got those to fit, I have no idea. We used Craigslist, KSL ( a local website that's really good for classifieds), Facebook, and co-workers and friends. I immediately put anything we made into savings. This did a few things: it gave us extra cash, made it so that we didn't need to rent out a storage unit, and purged all the stuff that we didn't actually need. We also gave a lot to charity for the stuff we didn't sell. It's such a good feeling to get rid of stuff you don't need for something that's going to be awesome like travel! Budget. Start cutting back on the things you don't NEED. And be honest with what you REALLY need and don't need. Do you need that new video game or to go get your nails done every two weeks? Probably not. Cancel that cable subscription, stop getting coffees everyday and make them at home. Stop going out to eat as much. Figure out how much you're saving by cutting back and then immediately put that in savings every week or month (whatever works easiest for you). It might seem like a bummer now, but keep your eye on the prize! A year abroad is going to be way more fun than paying $80 a month for cable to realize there's nothing good on. 3. Do research on how much things are going to cost where you are going. Some of our largest expenses were upfront, like airfare, hotel for the first few days, buying a van and registering it., and stocking up on supplies (food, gas, tools). Don't skip on this. If you undercut how much things are going to cost you, you will run out of money sooner than you want. Build a cushion for unforeseen expenses...like the flat tire we got and the broken headlight we had to get fixed. 4. Get a Charles Schwab bank account. This saved us so much money, I can't even tell you. First of all, there are no atm fees anywhere in the world! That is awesome and unheard of. If an atm machine anywhere in the world charges you a fee, Charles Schwab reimburses it for you monthly. Also, and this is huge, there are no foreign transaction fees anywhere in the world. Which means you can use it for anything and it's just like you were using it back home. HUGE money saver. A lot of credit cards or banks charge anywhere from 1%-3% or more for foreign transactions. So, if over a month you spend $1000 abroad, you're going to pay an extra $30 just for the privileged. Which may not seem like a ton, but figuring that the U.S dollar is not as strong as many other currencies, you're already going to be paying more for everything, don't pay more just to spend your money. 5. Look into working holidays. We spent all our time in New Zealand which has a working holiday visa. This means you can live and work there for a year. I would highly suggest this. Not only will working help you stretch your money further, but you'll make tons of friends. All the friends I made in New Zealand I made while working. And its an opportunity to have a deeper insight into the culture. I learned so much while working, it was a great idea. But don't forget that you are still on vacation, so don't get too serious about climbing cooperate ladders, remember to have fun! This is the beautiful place that I worked for a while. 6. Be honest about expectations. If you aren't working while abroad, you are not going to be able to afford to go out to eat hardly at all and expect your money to last a year. When we landed in New Zealand we had $13,000 in the bank and $3000 in the bank when we got back. With that $10,000 difference we had to buy return tickets, food, gas, lodging, travelers insurance, (Which was a requirement of our visa). Now we were able to supplement our funds with my job, but most of that went into higher lodging costs since we got a beach side apartment and weren't camping for a while. We also went out more with friends. But we wouldn't have been able to afford any of that without the job. 7. Know that you will not be able to afford a regular cell phone or internet plan. We got a pay as you go phone and internet stick through Vodafone. It was used primarily for emergencies and updating our families on how we were doing. I think we may have spent $30 a month for both. Our phone didn't have a camera, data, nothing. It could call people, and had a nifty flash light on it. That's it. It will be next to impossible to afford a standard cell plan with all the bells and whistles on limited funds. But honestly, we didn't miss it, it was actually really nice and I kind of wish I could go back to that. In NZ, wifi is rarely free. We found a couple of coffee shops that would give you a code after buying something. When I had my job, there was a local library that you could get free wifi at which was fantastic. We were always at the library! It had a descent signal, so we would skype with family from the park outside. It as great. We expected more places to have free wifi, but we had already budgeted for our internet stick (that's probably not what they're called, Vodafone called it a vodastick) so it wasn't a huge thing for us. Having the Vodastick was helpful when we were able to find out about a cyclone that blew in and flooded our only way out. Pat bravely checked if we'd survive the crossing. The Oregon Trail game did come in handy...huh? 8. Get some basic tools. If you are planning on buying a car or van (which I would highly recommend). Get some basic tools and know at least a little bit about how to use them. Thankfully Pat is an aircraft mechanic, so I left that all to him. But we did get tools right away and those combined with his skills saved our bacon more than a few times. We bought our van for $3000 NZ dollars and sold it nearly a year later for $1200. We sold it in about 30 minutes at the backpacers car market. We could have gotten more, but we didn't take the time because we were in a hurry and honestly the van had about a days life left in it (no exaggeration). I wonder where our Van (named Delilah) is now....sigh memories. And spending $1800 over a the course of a year is about $150 dollars a month. You wont be able to travel far with any other means of transport or as freely for that cost. And the van doubled as lodging for a long time so we saved even more money. Mechanics in NZ are a lot more expensive than in the U.S. So if you can do some basic things, you'll save a ton. 9. Don't forget to have fun, budget for it. That's why you're there right? Don't get so caught up in how much everything costs to go out and have fun. We went on a cruise of Milford sound, hiked at the base of a volcano, surfed (well tried to), swam in waterfalls, saw pinguins, drove nearly the whole coast of the entire country and saw so much. Sometimes you just need to go out and do it! Don't let this picture fool you, I did not dominate those waves. 10. Ask for help. We were taken back by how friendly and helpful people were. When I was looking for my job, I just started walking into every store and shop I could find. People were so helpful. In one bakery, the very nice guy behind the counter told me about a job at a resort, I went there and two days later I had a job. We got help when our van got a flat tire and our wrench broke...in the middle of the night...in the middle of nowhere. I think people are for the most part good, and like to help people, don't be afraid, but use your head. Also, hit me up in the comments if you have questions, I'm happy to help...and I promise not to whistle at you like the transvestite hookers in Auckland did to me...promise! |
Skeeter
Hi there! I'm Skeeter. I grew up moving a lot and that makes me a bit restless for travel and exploration. I started this blog with my husband Pat when we decided to backpack New Zealand for a year. We are always looking for the next adventure and are loving life. We're just your average couple with two sassy dogs and a love for travel. We're sharing our travels and the tips we pick up along the way. LIZHello! I'm Liz. Blogging is very new to me, but I'm so excited to finally write as much as I talk! Archives
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