Roger Haston

Lawn Roombas

It has been quite a long time since my last post. As you know, we left Akaroa and headed to Motueka to settle in and look for a place to live permanently. That was almost 2 months ago and in that period of time we have been deep in house hunting mode. We have beenContinue reading “Lawn Roombas”

Akaroa

The drive from Lake Tekapo to Akaroa was relatively uneventful other than the truck that had tipped over on the super windy road and caused a minor traffic jam. Thankfully the driver looked unscathed. These roads in New Zealand … they are something else. Akaroa is on the Banks Peninsula which are some old volcanoesContinue reading “Akaroa”

Four Peaks

After leaving our rubbish in the Lake Ohau place, we drove the hour and forty-five minutes to Fairlie where we were going to do a 3-day/2-night hut-to-hut trip on a gigantic private station in the Four Peaks range. We, as usual, were way early so we tried to come up with some stuff to doContinue reading “Four Peaks”

Lake Ohau

After leaving our good buddy, Emmitt, we headed up to Oamaru for a night before heading to Lake Ohau. We stopped by our favorite brewery, Craftworks, to have a beer and some of the super yummy cheese. The bar tender remembered us and how much we liked the cheese and helped up choose again. ItContinue reading “Lake Ohau”

Dunedin — The Final Chapter

Well, our time in Dunedin has officially come to an end. We have enjoyed ourselves and taking care of Mr. Velcro. Emmitt, as mentioned before, has been an absolute joy to hang out with and we are definitely going to miss him. I think he will miss us too, but dogs just have a differentContinue reading “Dunedin — The Final Chapter”

Around Dunedin (part 2)

Well, our stay in Dunedin is coming to a close and it has been a truly lovely 6 weeks here. After the initial “oh crap, it’s colder than Scotland” weather in the beginning, we ended up with a very pleasant summer. At times it was even hot! Mr. Velcro has been totally awesome to hangContinue reading “Around Dunedin (part 2)”

Otago Central Rail Trail

One thing that has been on my list is the Otago Central Rail Trail, which runs from Middlemarch to Clyde in Central Otago. This is the original “Great Ride” in New Zealand. “The Rail Trail offers a superb recreational walking/cycling/riding experience for both holidaymakers and athletes. It extends 150 kilometres between Middlemarch and Clyde, acrossContinue reading “Otago Central Rail Trail”

Around Dunedin (part 1)

Our dog/house sitting gig is now about halfway completed and Mr. Velcro (a.k.a Emmitt) has us totally wrapped around his paw at this point. This, in general, is not a problem as we love him to death. Although, he is getting rather pushy about getting his morning walk. If it gets to be 9:30 andContinue reading “Around Dunedin (part 1)”

Mr. Velcro

We drove from Kaka Point to Dunedin to Amy and Brandon’s house where we would be house/dog sitting for the next 6 weeks while they were away in the US for work and holiday. We had met their dog Emmitt before when they had graciously allowed us to park our car at their house whileContinue reading “Mr. Velcro”

The Catlins

After our hike on the Routeburn, we had a few days to kill before heading to Dunedin for our dog/house sitting gig, so we decided to head down to the Catlins Coast. This is an area that I have never been to before, so I was excited to do a little exploring there. If youContinue reading “The Catlins”