Brandon O'Brien

Friday, August 19, 2022 @ 9:03 PM in 2022 Germany and France

Who knew that getting a passport for a five week old baby would be so tough! The process seems pretty straightforward, and it should have been, if not for the hospital putting the wrong date on the birth certificate notification they sent to the state of New Mexico.

First off, what's actually needed and how do you get a rush passport? Well, you just need to have proof of international travel, have the physical and copies of mom and dad's passports and drivers licenses, fill out a DS-11 form, and have a physical and printed copy of the birth certificate. When you have all that, you can make an appointment for an Urgent Travel passport at one of the many passport facilities around the country. We chose El Paso because it was the closest and they had availability. They only allow you to make the appointment within 14 days of your international travel (hint: not that you can schedule it a few months out for within 14 days of travel, you can't actually make the call and schedule the appointment until two weeks before your travel). Our international flight is scheduled for August 24th and our appointment was for August 19th. The urgent travel passport cost us $195 to the government, plus travel and hotel costs. We got the passport 3 hours after showing up.

Let me get back to the mess though... When Dakotah was born, the hospital didn't immediately file his paperwork and had the date and time incorrect on the file they sent to the New Mexico Department of Health (the department that handles birth certificates). The DoH sent us a form with all of the information they received and said to make a note if anything was incorrect. I did so and we got the form notarized and sent back off to the State.

That paperwork was sent back to the state before Dakotah was two weeks old. I figured they'd make their changes and get his birth certificate processed and on its way to us. Well, we waited and waited (and saw our check was cashed which paid for the certificate) but nothing arrived. Getting desperate, we found out we could go to the Office of Vital Records here in Santa Fe and have them print one for us right then and there. We did this on Monday the 15th. Great! Well, not really. Unfortunately since we had made a correction to the data the State had, they couldn't print us a certificate until they got confirmation of the changes from the hospital.

Since we wouldn't be able to get Dakotah his passport without having his birth certificate (otherwise, there aren't any legal documents proving Sam and I are the parents), we were really starting to get nervous. We didn't hear anything on the 16th so we started calling consistently on the 17th until Sam finally got a hold of someone near the end of the day who said they would try to escalate the issue to their supervisor. We tried stressing the importance of getting this on the 18th since we had to head to El Paso for our 9am appointment on the 19th.

On the 18th, we called almost every hour to the various phone numbers we had been calling and new ones we hoped might get us somewhere. By noon we still hadn't talked to anyone and it was getting to be time we needed to head to El Paso for our appointment. We thought we'd try one last ditch effort and go to the actual vital records office again and see if they had heard anything. Unfortunately they weren't able to do anything because their system still showed the case was pending confirmation from the hospital.

Not knowing what else to do, we set off towards El Paso. We had printed off all of Dakotah's post natal documents, Sam's hospital record from the birth and an additional form, DS-10, hoping that maybe all of this stuff would help prove we're Dakotah's parents. I was giving us only a 5% chance of all that working but we didn't have any other option but to head south.

We got stuck in quite a bit of traffic due to construction leaving Santa Fe. Sitting in stop and go traffic only added to my stress level. Sam tried making a few more phone calls and about an hour later, right before hitting Albuquerque, I got a call saying the birth certificates were ready! Great! Except we had to go back to Santa Fe to pick them up. UGH. We'd already been in the car for an hour and needed to turn around, sit in the worse side of the construction traffic and head back to Santa Fe to pick up the certificate.

While sitting in construction traffic, a FedEx truck in front of us let off the brake and was slowly creeping backwards and ended up hitting our bumper. Fortunately they didn't keep going and the damage was superficial. It was still one more added piece of unnecessary stress. Since we were in stop and go traffic, we couldn't jump out and go try to flag the guy down or anything.

After another 30 minutes sitting in stop and go traffic, we finally made it back to the vital records office, got the birth certificate and then started the journey back down to El Paso that we initially began 3 hours prior. By now it was about 3:30 in the afternoon, we've already been in the car for about 3 hours, we still had a 5+ hour drive with an infant and a dog and there was still a 30 minute backup in that same construction zone we had to contend with.

The construction zone had even more traffic than the first time we went through, probably due to end of day commuters going back to Albuquerque from Santa Fe. To add to the time issues, we also hit rain and rush hour in Albuquerque. On the bright side, the traffic cleared and the roads were almost empty from Los Lunas all the way through Las Cruces. We did a quick pit-stop in Socorro for dinner (got some Blakes Lotaburger).

Dakotah had been a trooper but just outside of Las Cruces (and about 8 hours in the car), he finally started having a pretty epic meltdown. We actually pulled over and had to bounce him around for a little while. Since we were stopped, we found a hotel in El Paso that was dog friendly, cheap and pretty close to downtown so we went ahead and booked it. There was still about an hour of driving to get there so we buckled up and set off again.

Getting to the hotel was pretty uneventful aside from some more construction in El Paso. We checked in some time around 9pm, well past when we wanted to get in (we were hoping for 5:00pm or so). One nice thing to happen on an otherwise crazy day was the woman who checked us into the hotel was a dog lover and waived the $50 pet fee.

We got situated in the room, set Dakotah's travel bassinet on the bed and tried to wind him down to sleep. It actually wasn't horrible having him next to us in the bassinet all night (which we were relieved about since we're about to spend 3 weeks in Europe doing just that). Max actually tolerated the whole situation pretty well too. He didn't try to jump into the bassinet and didn't freak out when Dakotah started getting hungry.

We ended up waking up around 6am and decided not to bother sleeping in until 7 like I had set my alarm for. We figured having a little extra time would be good in the morning. I'd estimate Sam and I probably got about 5-6 hours of sleep, which wasn't horrible. The same couldn't be said for the hotel's breakfast offering though. The coffee was on the cold side of lukewarm and watered down to the point you could almost see to the bottom of the coffee cup. They had some eggs and potatoes as the hot offering, of which the eggs were fine but the potatoes were pretty undercooked. Fortunately a quick zap in the microwave fixed that.

By now it was around 7:30 and we had the car loaded up and set off to find some real coffee and get to the passport office. We actually found a bakery/cafe pretty close to the hotel that had some great coffee and muffins. The drive from there to downtown El Paso was actually a breeze and we arrived at the parking garage around 8:15. Having some time to kill and seeing a nice park across the street from the parking garage, we took Max out to stretch his legs.

Fortunately between the overcast/rainy skies, early time of day and being in a parking garage, we didn't feel bad having Max in the car while we went into the appointment. The process at the passport office was super smooth (thank goodness for having the birth certificate!). We overheard several other people trying to explain how they didn't have this piece of info or that specific document and I could only imagine us in that situation trying to beg and plead that our random docs were enough.

After the application process, they told us it shouldn't take more than 4 hours for the passport to be ready. Rather than leave max in the parking garage, we got back in the car and set off for a big outlet mall we had passed by earlier. Sam was looking to get some specific clothes she's been having trouble finding in Santa Fe so we figured it would be a good way to waste some time.

We walked around the outlets and Sam did find some stuff which was great. I got a call on my phone around 11:30 saying the passport was ready and we could come pick it up. That was super fast! We finished up and ate lunch at a place called TacoTote which was really good. Sam got a couple tacos and I got a "street plate" which was a huge pile of carnitas with some corn tortillas and a roasted onion. They have a huge salsa bar with tons of other veggies to add to your tacos.

When we were sufficiently stuffed, we got back in the car and headed back to the passport office where I ran in and got Dakotah's passport. By now it was around 1:30 so we started our trip back to Santa Fe. While on the road, we decided to stop at Elephant Butte, a big lake near Truth or Consequences, and let Max run around and to give us a break from the car.

The rest of the trip back was pretty uneventful. Sam got a few naps and we stopped for some subpar Chinese takeaway in Albuquerque. Fortunately it was late enough in the day so there wasn't any slowdown in that construction zone that had screwed things up so much yesterday.

Now that we all have passports, this trip just became extremely real. We have four days to pack and get any other miscellaneous things we need for the trip. Check back for another post with our itinerary as well as daily posts while we're on the trip!

Teaser photos:

Dakotah sticking his tongue out at a gas station

Getting some Blakes in Socorro

Waiting for the passport appointment in El Paso

Quick stop at Elephant Butte on the way home

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Tags: passport, dakotah, road trip, el paso

Posted from: United States

Sunday, June 19, 2022 @ 6:00 PM in General Travel

Even though Sam is eight month's pregnant, we still wanted to get out for one last adventure weekend while we could. Greg, Mattie and Aaron were all planning on going up to Salida for the FibARK festival (First in Boating on the Arkansas) so we joined up with them for the trip. The festival takes place on the Arkansas river in Salida where there are activities all weekend. The one even we were really excited for was the Hooligan race which is where people build their own rafts and try to float down the river without their craft falling apart.

Sam took Friday off from work so we packed the truck up with all our camping gear and a ridiculous amount of food and then left Santa Fe around 9:30 in the morning. Greg, Mattie and Aaron had gone up there on Thursday to secure a camping spot, so we weren't in a rush to try and take care of that. We rolled into Salida a little before 1 in the afternoon and decided to get lunch there. We had pizza at Amicas, where Aaron and his buddy Steve met up with us.

After lunch, we met up with Greg and Mattie by the river and watched some of the activities taking place. There were a lot of kayakers practicing for the freestyle event which would take place on Saturday. It was pretty neat watching them do flips and rolls in the big rapid right in town. We had some beer by the river and watched Greg take his inflatable kayak out so he could try and ride a smaller rapid. The boat ended up getting filled with water and flipping. Fortunately there weren't really that many people around to witness it, lol.

It started to thunder and lightning so me, Sam, Aaron and Steve decided to bail and head back up to the campsite so we could get our setup put together. We somehow fit Aaron and Steve's bikes on the truck and got them in the cab as well. On the drive up to the campsite, it started raining really hard. Steve remembered he left a window open in his camper (directly above his bed), so we booked it up there so he could get it closed. Fortunately his stuff wasn't too soaked.

We set up our camp and then had dinner while waiting for Greg and Mattie to come back from town. It got pretty cold and windy so we hung out in Aaron's truck for a little while. When Greg and Mattie showed up, they started a fire in their Solo stove and we hung out there until we were ready for bed. It got really windy and rained a few times that night which meant I didn't get great sleep. I still woke up around 6:15 in the morning so I got started with coffee. We brought stuff to make breakfast burritos which was really nice on a chilly and damp morning.

There wasn't a real plan aside from Sam and I trying to squeeze a hike in. We decided it would be easiest to head into town and hike around there. That way, we could park the vehicles somewhere near town so we wouldn't be too far from the festival. Aaron and Greg rode to town on their mountain bikes while we drove down. We parked right next to the river and set out to do a hike up and down S Mountain. The hike was only about 3.5 miles but got you some really nice views of the town. While up hiking, it sprinkled on us a little bit but nothing too bad yet.

We had lunch at the cars by the river when Aaron text me and told me to come to the Boathouse Cantina for a birthday shot (my birthday was going to be in two days). I went over there and had a shot of Mezcal and a beer. While there, it started to down pour again so we hung out there for a few while Sam and Max were in the truck. When the rain let up slightly, I ran out to the truck where we waited until it was sprinkling enough to feel OK about going and hanging out by the river again.

Greg had a spot he really wanted to watch the Hooligan race at, so we got situated there around 3pm (the hooligan race didn't start until 5:30). We left a few times to drop Max off, get some ice cream and more booze. The last time we returned with some booze, it had really filled up and people started giving us the stink eye even though we'd been there for a few hours already.

We watched the freestyle kayak competition which was taking place before the Hooligan race. Before the Hooligan race started, they brought out a gigantic bike ramp so BMXers could do tricks off of it into the water. Some of the people were able to pull off some extremely cool tricks. The Hooligan race had several heats of four rafts each. Most of them fell apart long before they hit the rapid we were waiting by. It was still really funny to watch what was left of the rafts try to navigate the rapids. I took an obscene amount of pics during the hooligan race, so be sure to check out the full photo gallery for all the action.

After the race ended, we met up with Maggie and decided to go back to the campsite for dinner instead of having it in town. Steve has a really cool camper which actually has a microwave in it, so he was able to warm up our lasagna for dinner which was very cool. It started raining again so we went back into Aaron's van and hung out for a while before finally calling it an early night. We had a lot more wind come through overnight (fortunately no real rain), but the wind was really blowing our canopy around and kept me up for most of the night.

In the morning, we had more coffee and breakfast burritos before slowly starting to tear down camp. Greg and I decided we'd ride down to town and meet up with everyone else before heading home. Our campsite was right next to a really nice trail system that went right into town. We rode Beasway, Rumba, Cottonwood and Chicken Dinner. It took me a little while to shake the lack of sleep and hangover, but the trail was really fun.

Sam and I had lunch at the Boathouse Cantina before driving home. Greg and Aaron had left a little bit before us in his van and we joked that Greg was bad luck and Aaron should be careful with his van. Greg has had a lot of issues getting stranded in his camper van in the past. Unfortunately, we got a call from Greg when we were about 20 minutes outside of Alamosa. Aaron's van shut down when they got to town and it wouldn't start back up. Greg had work travel on Monday so couldn't afford to miss it. We picked up Greg and loaded up the truck with all his stuff while Aaron was waiting on a mechanic to get back with him.

He was pretty sure the alternator had given out which was causing the battery not to charge. This meant there was a cascade of errors and problems. Aaron was ready to spend the night there while waiting for mechanics to show up, but fortunately found an alternator in town and was able to install it himself. This probably saved him a day of wasted time and several hundred dollars!

We got back to Santa Fe in the midst of a huge monsoon storm. We had to wait to unpack a little while, but were definitely not going to complain about any rain. The trip as a whole was a lot of fun. It was a lot of things rolled into one (almost Father's day for me, my birthday weekend and our last outing for a while due to a baby almost here). If we do FibARK again, we'll probably aim to camp in town so we don't have to drive back and forth so much.

Teaser photos:

Hanging out in Aaron's van

Camping spot near Salida

Hiking S Mountain in Salida

Tired Max at the festival

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Tags: colorado, camping

Posted from: United States

Sunday, June 5, 2022 @ 4:00 PM in General Travel

On Friday, Sam had the urge to get out of town for the weekend. Unfortunately, most of the National Forest in NM is currently closed due to fire danger so we had to widen our radius slightly. We were looking for somewhere that was within about a 3 hour drive from home, had water nearby and wouldn't be slammed with people. After talking with some friends, we landed on the Conejos River between Antonito and Chama. One of our friends mentioned she had some friends who were planning on camping up in this area so we figured we'd try it too. We actually did a several night backpacking trip up in this area several years ago and remembered it being really beautiful.

We packed up the car and were out the door by about 9:30am on Saturday. Rather than try to prep any food, we just went to Market Street and bought some premade meals for food. We bought a salmon salad with pasta salad for lunch #1, some fried chicken, mashed potatoes and green beans for dinner and some more fried chicken for lunch #2. The drive up to the campground was pretty uneventful and surprisingly lacking any real traffic aside from one area near San Antonio Mountain where the road was under construction and down to one lane.

We got to the campground a little before 12:30 and found a nice spot directly across from the river. We pulled out our coolers and camping gear and had lunch before heading out for a walk down to Spectacle Lake and the campground there. There were several people fishing for trout in the lake and we actually saw a few people catch some fish. The lake definitely looked stocked since you could see a ton of fish just swimming around.

After getting back to the campsite, we relaxed in some shade and read books for a few hours before it was time for dinner. Some motorcyclists pulled up to hang out by the creek and snap some pics. I went over to talk to them and snapped some shots for them. Turns out they weren't staying the night but just making a little detour while they were on their way back to Taos for the night. We shared some quick stories of our various trips before they took off. To reheat dinner, we just used our camp stove and a frying pan with some foil, which worked surprisingly well. We spent the rest of the evening relaxing before we finally called it an early night and went to bed in the back of the truck.

Due to some combination of white noise from the river, the temperatures being on the cooler side and having tall cliffs all around us, we actually slept in until about 7:30 which is "late" for us. We ended up with about 10 hours of sleep which felt amazing. Breakfast was some coffee, a muffin for me and some overnight oats for Sam. We packed up camp after drinking our coffee and drove up the road about 10 minutes to the South Fork trailhead.

There was a little debate about whether this was the same trailhead we started our big backpacking trip from, and it turns out it was. We hiked about four miles and enjoyed being in some greenery again. Near the trailhead were a few stream crossings. On the way out, we tried picking our steps carefully to avoid getting wet. On the way back, we just sloshed right through the water since we could put sandels on when we got to the car. When we had just crossed the river, we saw some people from Santa Fe (the friends of friends who were staying in this area which spurred our idea to camp here). We chatted with them for a bit before getting back to the truck and having lunch.

The drive back home was equally uneventful aside from the one section where the road was down to one lane.

Teaser photos:

At Spectacle Lake

Max after a dunk in the Conejos river

Fried chicken, mashed potatoes and green beans for dinner

Hiking on the Roaring Gulch trail

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Tags: camping, colorado

Posted from: United States

Sunday, December 1, 2019 @ 10:00 PM in 2019 New Zealand

Day 8/9

We needed to be at the airport a little before noon today so we could get checked in and ready for our flight back to LA. Rather than try to make food at the hotel, we went to a coffee house where we had some coffee and pastries. After that, we did a final grocery run to buy some snacks to bring back to family and friends. I bought some Tim Tams which my mom ended up loving when we brought them to Christmas.

The flight was uneventful and we made it back to LA in the morning. Sam and I opted to stay an extra day in LA to unwind from the international trip. We ended up taking the metro up to Pasadena where we had some Himalayan food for lunch. After that, we went pretty close to where she grew up and walked around for a while before taking the metro back to the hotel and passing out a little early. We did walk around the hotel area and got dinner at a hole in the wall asian place. Our flight back to New Mexico was bright and early the next morning. Fortunately we were a stone's throw from the airport and didn't need to worry about getting there on time.

All in all, the trip was extremely fast but we were able to see and do a lot. New Zealand was a beautiful place and definitely one I want to go back to. The culture and landscape are both extremely impressive and it's worth a visit if you get a chance!

Tags: new zealand, los angeles, honeymoon

Posted from: United States

Saturday, November 30, 2019 @ 9:00 PM in 2019 New Zealand

Day 7

We left Queenstown around noon today and got into Auckland a little before 2pm. It took us a while for the Uber to get us from the airport to our hotel in Auckland. When we finally checked in, we realized it was HOT in there. There wasn't an A/C and the only relief was two little floor fans. Oh well, time to open the windows and go explore the town for the small time we were there.

The first thing we did was walk through town and found a place selling Boba tea. Sam and Anne both got some and then we continued walking around and went through Albert Park which was a nice lush green area in the middle of town. From there we stopped for a beer at a place called My Bar before heading over to the Princess Wharf to view the bay.

We weren't sure what to do for dinner until we found the Tanuki Japanese Restaurant which had really good reviews. We made a reservation and were seated pretty fast. We had a good time talking about all our experiences on the trip over some nice sushi and Japanese beer. After dinner we stopped for some frozen yogurt and then walked back to the hotel.

By this time in the trip we were all pretty tired from covering so much ground over the last week. We called it an early night in prep for catching our flight home tomorrow.

Teaser photos:

Walking around Auckland

Asian restaurant for dinner

Getting some Froyo

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Tags: new zealand, honeymoon, auckland

Posted from: New Zealand

Friday, November 29, 2019 @ 9:00 PM in 2019 New Zealand

Day 6

Today was a thrilling day. Mike and I had made plans to go bungee jumping at the birthplace of bungee at the AJ Hackett Kawarau Bungy Center while Anne and Sam went horseback riding in some of the areas they filmed Lord of the Rings.

We dropped the girls off in town first thing in the morning, then packed up some beers and made our way to the bungee center. The plan was to each get a jump in, then find a cool overlook to have some beers and unwind from the adrenaline rush while we waited for Anne and Sam to finish their horseback tour.

The jump takes place on a bridge over a river with a free fall distance of 141 feet. When we got to the bungee center and paid for our jump, they took our weights, wrote the weight on our hands, then weighed us again several other times to make sure they set the correct tension/length on the jump cord. They had us wait on the bridge but you can't really see off of it which kinda helped with the nerves. We could hear a few people ahead of us jump, but couldn't see them actually go off. After a final weighing and them asking us if we wanted to try and touch the river, we got shuffled to the area where we actually got our feet strapped in. While this was happening, we still couldn't really see the river or over the edge. One person went before me and I heard them give a 5 second countdown when you got to the jump position. If you don't jump by then, they kindly push you off, lol.

I got fully strapped in and sat there for a minute or two before someone told me I was ready. As I was hobbling over to the jump platform, I got my first real glimpse of the full height of the bridge and the size of the plank I had to walk out on. As I was hopping to the end of the plank, they started the countdown. I certainly didn't want to get pushed off so when I got to the edge I just went for it and jumped.

The rush during those few seconds of free fall was really intense. The cord caught and bounced me back up, then I had a little more free fall before they slacked the cord and a boat came out to catch me. It was a pretty cool system they had. Once you were done with your jump, they had an inflatable raft that comes out, grabs you and takes you back to some stairs at the river's edge. I remember my head feeling extremely tight from the blood rush, but I was extremely happy I went through with the jump and ended up unscathed.

Mike jumped after me, then we met up back on the stairs, both on an adrenaline high. They tried to sell us some photos and videos of the jump, but we opted not to get them. Mike did buy us both a used piece of the bungee cord which was pretty cool to see. It's just a bunch of strands of elastic all bound together. Apparently they replace those pretty frequently and sell some of the old stuff as a souvenir.

As I mentioned earlier, they ask if you want to try and touch the water before the first bounce. I said yes but apparently they didn't have things worked out enough and didn't actually get my hands wet. We did see another guy who ended up slamming about waist deep into the water. When we were back in the tourist facility, he was getting looked over by some medics. Apparently he hurt himself when he slammed into the water. I'm glad I ended up not touching vs going too far, lol.

Mike and I set off for a nice overlook to have some of the beers we brought. We drove around for a little while until we finally came across the Crown Range Road Scenic Lookout. There were some incredible views of the surrounding mountains and valleys. We each enjoyed some beers while winding down from the jump. There was still some time to kill before Sam and Anne were done with their tour, so we found a wide river to walk along. It was really weird though, as we were walking down to the water, some birds were not happy and kept dive-bombing us. It would have been a cool area to hang out, but we only stayed long enough to snap some pics and be on our way.

When we all met back up at the Airbnb, Sam and I walked into town to check out some shops. We saw a few earlier and noticed how cheap the prices were. Sam ended up getting a jacket but I didn't find anything that I thought I needed.

Teaser photos:

Bungee jumping at AJ Hackett

Post bungee beers

The beer spot

Getting attacked by birds

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Tags: new zealand, honeymoon, queenstown, bungee jumping

Posted from: New Zealand

Thursday, November 28, 2019 @ 10:11 PM in 2019 New Zealand

Day 5

We had another quick travel day today, flying from Christchurch to Queenstown. The flight departed Christchurch at 10am and only took an hour to get us to Queenstown. We landed and got our rental car, then drove to the Airbnb to check in. This was probably the nicest Airbnb I've ever stayed at (and maybe will ever stay at). The views of Queenstown were freaking spectacular. They had a hot tub with the same views which was equally great. Definitely check out the pics for the views we had.

We left the Airbnb to see what Queenstown was all about. We started off walking around the tiny beach and harbor area of town. We came to a pub called Ivy & Lola's where we stopped for a beer and to admire the views of the harbor and mountains. Afterwards, Sam saw someone handing out some seeds to feed the ducks so she had fun feeding and trying to pet them.

We saw they had a big luge setup at the top of one of the peaks so Mike, Sam and I went up to do that while Anne stayed in the overlook area. The luge was really fun, but we kept getting trapped behind people that were going really slow. Even with the slowdowns, it was still a fun time and we got a few good thrills.

We got back to the Airbnb and then Mike and I went over to the local grocery to get something for Thanksgiving dinner. We decided on muscles with veggies, bread and wine. The dinner turned out being really good and was a nice alternative to a full Thanksgiving dinner. We enjoyed our meal with the incredible views I mentioned earlier in this post.

After dinner, we went down and sat in the hot tub for a long time. Being as far south as we were and the time of year, it was still light well past 10pm. Unfortunately the hot tub was on a timer and the jets / heater turned off at 10 so we weren't able to stay out there even longer.

Being in Queenstown for one day, Sam and I both agreed this is what we had in mind when we thought of New Zealand. The dramatic mountains everywhere, the adventure sports, the chill nature of the town, etc all perfectly matched our ideas of New Zealand.

Teaser photos:

New Zealand Pilsner

Sam feeding ducks in Queenstown, New Zealand

Skyline Luge in Queenstown

Thanksgiving Dinner at the Airbnb

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Tags: new zealand, queenstown, honeymoon

Posted from: New Zealand

Wednesday, November 27, 2019 @ 10:00 PM in 2019 New Zealand

Day 4

Sam and I started the morning with another run. We didn't really have a plan but saw there were some paths to the north of where we were staying. We started jogging along and eventually came upon a footbridge that got all mangled during the earthquake in 2011. When we finished the run, we stopped for some pastries at Grizzly Baked Goods and then made our way down to Akaroa.

On the drive to Akaroa, we saw a little cheese shop that had some picnic tables out front and some nice views of the bay. We stopped and got some cheese, salami, crackers and wine and made a really nice little pitstop. Akaroa is known as a French settlement but nothing about the place would have made you think there was any French influence there. It's still a really quaint harbor town that was fun to explore. We started by checking out a little park and then walking around the harbor area.

Sam and I opted for a tour of the bay while Mike and Anne went to a vineyard. The boat tour was really nice, showing us a lot of the coastline that we never would have seen from the car. After we finished the tour, we met back up with Mike and Anne at a restaurant called Bully Hayes where we had some beer, muscles and paella. It was getting a little late and we still had to drive back to Christchurch, so we packed back into the car and set off north again.

When we were driving to Akaroa, we saw a huge beach called Birdlings Flat and decided to stop there on the way back to the hotel. The beach didn't have sand, but instead was nothing but eroded rocks. For some reason, Mike had the idea that we could drive onto the beach but we quickly realized that was a horrible idea as the rental van started to sink into the rocks. Rather than stopping and getting stuck, he was able to keep the van moving and got us turned around and back into the parking area. We were all pretty worried there for a minute that we might have to call a tow truck to get us out, haha.

Today was Sam's birthday so we stopped at a supermarket and got her some cake to celebrate!

Teaser photos:

Twisted bridge from earthquake

Cheese, meat and wine at Barrys Bay Traditional Cheese

Playing around in a park in Akaroa

Cliffs in Akaroa on a boat tour

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Tags: new zealand, honeymoon, christchurch, akaroa

Posted from: New Zealand

Tuesday, November 26, 2019 @ 10:00 PM in 2019 New Zealand

Day 3

We flew from Wellington to Christchurch this morning, departing around 9:30am and getting into Christchurch at 10:30. Air New Zealand is amazing and runs like buses would in most cities. If you're flying domestic, you don't need to go through any kind of security checkpoint (which blew our minds when we just walked right up to our gate from entering the airport). The fares are also extremely cheap. This flight for example was $29. A similar duration flight in the US would have easily been 3x that much.

After we landed in Christchurch and got our car, we went to the Air Force Museum of New Zealand and checked that out for a while. Mike and Anne love checking out places like that and it was a good way to spend an hour or so (we had to wait a little while to check into our hotel anyway). There was a group of veterans at the museum all meeting up for some tea. It seemed like they made that a regular tradition and was neat to see.

On the way to our hotel we stopped for a snack at a place called the Fermentist. They had a lot of gastropub style food and we opted for some fried cauliflower and beer. When enough time passed that we could check into the hotel, we drove over there and got checked in. The photos and reviews on Hotels.com made it seem like it was going to be a really nice place, but we could tell upon entering the lobby that it wasn't quite going to be the case. We got into our room and were greeted with a really bad smell, which we later determined was caused by the shower shooting water onto the ground and then making its way into the bedroom carpet, keeping it soaked. We ended up opening all the windows while we went out to walk around Christchurch.

We stopped for more snacks and drinks at a place called Fiddlesticks, then walked over to the botanic gardens, where the roses were in full bloom, and then went to the Canterbury Museum which had a lot of native artwork.

We decided to get some Thai to go and ended up eating on the patio of our hotel room. The Thai was pretty good, but lacking a lot of spiciness.

Teaser photos:

Sam, Anne and I at the Wellington airport

In prison at the Air Force Museum of NZ

The Fermentist for a snack

Native art at the Canterbury Museum

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Tags: new zealand, wellington, christchurch, honeymoon

Posted from: New Zealand

Monday, November 25, 2019 @ 10:00 PM in 2019 New Zealand

Day 2

Sam and I woke up with a plan to go for a run. We got started and ran down to the south side of the area where we saw the beaches on the Cook Straight. It definitely reminded me of some of the towns you'd see in Northern California along the coast. We continued to loop around and ended up running through a really cool little downtown in Island Bay. We weren't ready for how steep some of the hills here were. We're used to some steep roads and trails in Santa Fe, but holy cow, these were to the point where you were really just walking. It's amazing cars don't just go flying out of control down the streets here.

After our run, we drove up north to Paraparaumu beach where we had brunch at Marine Parade Eatery. We checked out the beach (which was full of driftwood) and then started a drive over to the Martinsborough winery area. We had two options to get over to Martinsborough... 1) Backtrack an hour and then drive more established roads. 2) Take the mountain roads (Akatarawa Rd) and save ourselves a ton of miles of driving. We ended up taking option #2 which in retrospect was probably a pretty poor choice.

The mountain road we took was a very narrow one lane with extremely steep grades and cliffs on either side. This made any attempt at passing almost impossible, but at least we only saw one other car the whole drive. Fortunately we didn't die and made it out of the mountains and into the plains of the wine country. The first winery we stopped at was called Poppies. We did tasted some samples and then got a bottle to share along with some cheese and bread. They had a really nice seating area overlooking the vineyards and it was a really nice experience.

From there, we went to a winery called Schubert where we sampled some more wine and bought a few bottles. We joked with the guy serving our samples that we were on a shared honeymoon and I don't think he knew how to take it, lol. We also told him how we got here via the Akatarawa Rd and he said we were extremely brave. The locals avoid that way at all costs due to frequent landslides and closures. I guess we did get really lucky! In chatting with him, he was talking about how a lot of Chinese people were buying up vineyards in the area as a way to get their cash out of China, but they weren't taking care of the vines properly and were generally running the vineyards they purchased into the ground.

We should have taken that last point a little closer as we were on our way to our last vineyard of the day, Vynfields Wine. We pulled into the place and noticed all the vines were either dormant or dead. This was a stark contrast to all of the other vineyards we stopped at and saw along the way. The second clue was that we couldn't find a dedicated parking area anywhere. We just kinda parked by the big white house that we assumed was the winery. The third clue was when we got in the winery and couldn't find anyone to help us. We called around a little bit and finally an elderly Chinese man who couldn't speak any English came out and showed us a list of some wines we could buy (no samples here). Between the four of us, we sampled a red, a white and a Rose. The red and whites had definitely turned and the Rose was extremely harsh. We didn't even finish the wines and left rather disappointed. (Note: I just checked and apparently the place is under new management as of early 2022 and hopefully has turned their operation around).

Rather than eating out tonight, we thought we'd get some groceries and cook something back at the Airbnb. We picked up some meat to grill, some asparagus, mushrooms and fries. It was a pretty nice dinner which we had with some beers.

Teaser photos:

Cool manhole covers in New Zealand

Tons of driftwood at Paraparaumu Beach

Wineries in Martinsborough

Sam enjoying a milkshake at the Airbnb

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Tags: new zealand, honeymoon, wineries, wellington

Posted from: New Zealand