Lindsey's Visit: Part 3

Lance Again:

So after lugging Lindsey through a few hikes and parks, she was in the mood for something a little more relaxing on her last day and half of vacation.  We decided to head up to Kumeu wine country for some vineyards and to take in Muriwai beach.  It was an absolute cracker of a day and we couldn't have asked for more perfect weather.  We could have really used this weather the last few days when we were outside a lot more, but it's New Zealand, you gotta take it when you get it.

I'm not sure when this happened, but here's Lindsey with Auckland in the background.

On Lindsey's last day it was Mother's Day, so we decided to head to Takapuna for a nice brunch before we had to take her to the Airport for the long flight back to the States.  We got James a fluffy, and he was in heaven.

And of course only in New Zealand can you go for a nice brunch and then a stroll along the water overlooking a volcanic island in the harbor afterward.  So we took advantage of that and worked off some of the calories for breakfast.

Lindsey's Visit: Part 2

Lance Again:

I took a few days off work when Lindsey came out to visit to take her around some of the cool areas of New Zealand.  First up was Bethell's beach and the sand dunes hike.  As before, we've done this one a couple of times and it is one of our favorites.  We had a great time on this one, although this was the first time we did the hike in the fall/winter and the stream portion of it that in the summer feel amazing, was a tad chilly and the vegetation was a little overgrown.  We were touch and go with Lindsey at the beginning and I thought we were reaching the point of no return, but she stuck it out and saw how incredible the area was when we pushed through the beginning.

As with everything that James and I do, it turned into a game of jumping around on the dunes.

 

I upped the anti a little bit and showed everyone how to jump off the cliff face of the dunes.

We then headed over to Bethells to show the beach were Taylor Swift shot her 'Out of the Woods' Video.

T Swift (she was smart and did it during summer)

Next up was a trip to Whangerai to take in some glow worm caves and a beautiful waterfall for a nice picnic lunch.  Gotta give Lindsey credit, she cried quite a bit and was very uncomfortable, but she went into the caves to see the glow worms and came out alive.

I wonder where James gets it to climb up on things.


Off to Whangerai falls for a great lunch.  There's worse places to have lunch:

Unfortunately for me, the rope swing that I got to do with our friend Nick out here about a year ago had been cut by someone and it was not to be.  I was pretty bummed, if there's anything that I like, it's a good rope swing.