Far Along The Road

02/03/2012

Sorry for such a long time between posts! For those who might not have known, we're pregnant (the baby's due any day now!); as a result, we've turned inward a little bit to enjoy the growth of our baby, the last months/days of our current family structure, and to get ready for our baby's birth. But, rest assured, we have lots of pictures and stories to share from our time in New Zealand and Samoa (and by the time we catch up, we'll have some baby stories to share as well!).

02/03/2012

Far Along The Road's cover photo

17/12/2011

http://faralongtheroad.com/marlborough/

For those of you who enjoy Sauvignon Blancs and other whites, you'll enjoy the Marlborough wine region.

17/12/2011

One of the many roses standing guard at the end of every row of grapes.

19/11/2011

Calm waters and high tides on the Cook Straight made for a great day sea kayaking.

We sea kayaked with baby seals!

19/11/2011

Abel Tasman National Park | Far Along The Road

The best way to deal with car problems is to go kayaking.

Finding a mechanic who could diagnose our car was more challenging than we had anticipated. We felt like we were participating in an episode of NPR’s Car Talk, however, without the witty banter and helpful suggestions/solutions. At one of our stops, we were incredulous to be awarded a Warra...

08/11/2011

Ashley walking under one of the many arches.

06/10/2011

Karamea | Far Along The Road

The last stop on our road trip of the South Island's West Coast featured beaches, caves, arches, and fossils.

If you keep driving the sealed, aka paved, road North to its conclusion you find yourself on a rocky beach on the Tasman Sea at the doorstep of Kahurangi National Park and a few footsteps away from the Southern terminus of one of New Zealand’s Great Walks – the Heaphy Track. We whiled away the time...

06/10/2011

25/09/2011

Making our way to the top of the West Coast of the South Island!

25/09/2011

The Pancake Rocks and Greymouth | Far Along The Road

Not very edible, but still wonderous to behold.

The rocks themselves were no less a wonder, their towering forms layered upon each other in rippling walls and gaping archways. Unlike anything we’d seen before, it was easy to see from whence their appellation was derived: the sandy gray stacks looked exactly like time-frozen pancakes. The...

18/09/2011

We are back! An unplanned winter sabbatical from writing has concluded. Expect frequent updates on our backlog of NZ travels as well as our upcoming spring travels to Samoa, NZ's North Island, and Australia.

18/09/2011

Hokitika | Far Along The Road

Time for a little DIY.

Greenstone is only found in certain places throughout New Zealand, the primary area being the West Coast. As a result, numerous carving studios dot the coastline offering their wares to the caravanning passersby. The Bonz’n'Stonz studio takes it one step further, tjough, allowing its customers to ...

18/09/2011

20/07/2011

20/07/2011

Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers | Far Along The Road

Surrounded by rainforest, just 12 kilometers from the Tasman sea rests two of the world's fastest moving glaciers: Franz Josef and Fox. We spent a day on Fox to see if we could keep up.

The Franz Joseph and Fox Glaciers (“gloh-SEERs,” as they say here in Enzed, not “GLAY-shurs,” as we Americans say), rush down the mountains faster than almost any other river of ice like them. In fact, they turn over so quickly, with snow falling at their top and pushing the whole mass down the roc

25/06/2011

Haast Pass and Jackson Bay | Far Along The Road

We make our way out of Queenstown for our own road trip of the South Island, this time destined for the northern parts. First up, the wee town of Jackson Bay!

Heading out of Wanaka, we made our way across the Southern Alps to Haast Pass. Many walking paths provided breaks from the winding two-lane road to stretch our legs, and we followed a handy guide to ensure we stopped at all the best ones. Ambling through the fern riddled, mossy beech forest

18/06/2011

Christchurch | Far Along The Road

There has been one sad constant during our tenure in New Zealand: Christchurch continues to be hit by earthquake after earthquake.

Within the hours after we departed from the Philadelphia airport, bound for the South Pacific, the Christchurch earthquake struck. We were in the air at the time and were dumbstruck by the amount of frantic activity at our Air New Zealand terminal in LAX. As information fragments turned into facts

09/06/2011

Mt. Cook/Aoraki | Far Along The Road

We were told by Kiwis that we had to visit Mt. Cook National Park and we're glad we followed their advice.

All around us, snow-capped mountains thrust up on the horizon from a vast river flood plain, but still the tallest mountain in New Zealand was not overly evident. We pointed to this peak and that peak, murmuring “Is THAT Mount Cook?” half to ourselves and half to anyone who’d follow the sight of ou

09/06/2011

27/05/2011

Not only is MOA Cherry Breakfast Beer simply delectable, its dark, watermarked bottle is also beautiful enough to be reused as an autumn vase.

21/05/2011

21/05/2011

Moeraki Boulders | Far Along The Road

In all of our travels we had never seen anything like the Moeraki Boulders.

And we just had to touch them. They were so out of place, the mind had a hard time believing and needed physical touch to verify what the mind’s eye could not comprehend. Numerous boulders, varied in size and condition, lay on the beach like dice cast from a giant’s hand. The waters of the

19/05/2011

Dunedin | Far Along The Road

As far as we can see, having a 1-ton liquid chocolate waterfall is just one of the many benefits of working for Cadbury Chocolates.

Dunedin (pronounced duh-KNEE-din) is the biggest city in Otago, the District that also contains Queenstown, our future home. It is an exact replica of the map of Edinburgh transplanted onto a hilly coastline. This makes for some interesting civil planning features, such as the “world’s steepest re

19/05/2011

06/05/2011

06/05/2011

The Catlin Coast | Far Along The Road

We were so lucky to get to see seven yellow-eyed penguins all at the same time at Curio Bay. They are the rarest penguin in the world, and it isn't the best season for them!

The principal stop on our drive was where a forest and a beach lay side-by-side, Curio Bay. It was no ordinary forest, though, that drew our attention here. Years of pounding surf had eroded the hillside, exposing petrified trees that had been entombed by swamp-like earth thousands of years

05/05/2011

04/05/2011

Stewart Island: Part 2 | Far Along The Road

Quintin Schroeder's evening habits are interrupted by a kiwi in this latest adventure.

We both were completing our evening ablutions when Ashley, first to be heading back toward the hut, noticed a rustling just off the track. Thinking she’d found one of the ever-present invasive possums, she shined her headlamp toward the noise. A brown, coconut-shaped lump shuffled around in the lo

04/05/2011

Stewart Island: Part 1 | Far Along The Road

Part one of our trip to hike the Rakiura Track on Stewart Island.

New Zealand is generally considered to be an island nation comprised of two distinct geographic and political entities: the North Island and the South Island. Oft forgotten, then, is the third major landmass associated with the archipelago. Relatively tiny compared to its more popular counterparts