September 27, 2017
Today was a looooong drive from Fes to the Sahara just outside of the city of Merzouga. A friend of a friend runs the Sahara Garden. Brahim coordinated everything for us and welcomed us upon our arrival with open arms. Truly an amazing human being. We were welcomed with dinner and singing and dancing around a bonfire.
September 24, 2017
Our second stop in Morocco was the blue city of Chefchaoen. A small city located up on a hill, wandering thru the medina surrounded by so many shades of blue was quite a different experience from Tangier. We stayed at Casa Perleta, a small bed and breakfast recommended by our friend. It was perfectly located within the upper hill area of the medina. The blue hues of the walls of Chefchaoen are believed to have originated when the Jews came while escaping Hilter in the 1930s. The blue is said to serve as a reminder to lead a spiritual life while symbolizing the sky and heaven.
September 11 - 15, 2017
Enroute to our close friends' wedding in Greece we found a cheap flight to Paris via Reykjavik, Iceland and decided to take advantage and do a little stopover in an effort to (fingers crossed) see the northern lights. We decided to restrict our few days to just the southern highlights along the coast. The first thing we noticed was that even though it was supposedly shoulder/low season in Iceland there were significantly more people than when we came the year before in August.
day ninety-eight: january 5, 2016
Today we traveled from Coron to El Nido. We caught a flight from Coron to Manila (1 hour), Manila to Puerto Princessa (1.5 hours), then hopped in a van to El Nido (7 hours). Needless to say, today was a big travel day. We arrived El Nido late in the evening so we went straight to bed to get ready for a big day of island hopping ahead of us.
day ninety-six: january 3, 2016
As part of our second day of island hopping, we snorkeled at two wrecks then spent the rest our time on Pass Island.
There are eleven WWII wrecks dating back to September 1944 when American bombers attacked a Japanese convoy anchored in Coron Bay. Many of the wrecks are shallow enough to snorkel, but also make for great wreck diving and snorkeling.
day ninety-four: january 1, 2016: coron
Today, we left Manila and made our way to our first stop of our Philippines tour, Coron. We are staying in Coron Town, the jumping off point to all the other islands. If you're planning to come here at some point, know that Coron Town is super simple and underdeveloped.
days eighty-eight to ninety-three: december 26 - december 31, 2016: manila and taal lake
Christmas Day was spent on planes and in airports as we traveled from Sorong to Manila, arriving at 2am on the 26th. After taking what seemed like forever to get thru customs and immigration and collecting our bags we were greeted by a familiar face, my dad and my two cousins, Karen and Kristel. What's the first thing you do after arriving in the Philippines, eat of course! As we left the airport, we appeared to be lost. My dad asked Kristel if she was lost and she said, "Yes, but we'll be ok, we have gas, we have money and we're still in the Philippines!". First stop, Aristocrat for some late night food.
Over the period of 11 days, I dove anywhere from 2-4 dives a day. Before the trip, I had been to many places to dive and had honestly been getting a little bit tired of diving, thinking I had seen everything I wanted to see underwater. I was really only in search of diving with the "big" things like sharks (which we did in Fiji), mantas, whale sharks, etc. After reading about the biodiversity that existed in Raja Ampat, I wanted to check it out for myself. The statistics stated that over 1,400 fish species live in the region and more than 500 species of coral. I think it's typical for a one week dive trip, that you would see maybe a handful of really cool things. Well, after the first day of diving in Raja Ampat I had already seen some of the coolest things I'd ever seen and a lot of it had to do with just the immense amount of biodiversity.
Honestly, great photos with the GoPro were hard to come by, but there are some below. Instead, I opted for video to try to capture what I saw underwater. I saw the most "cool" things I've ever seen underwater all on this trip and most of them multiple times on different dives. There was one dive where we were surrounded by a massive school of small fish and watching them move around and between us was absolutely insane. The video just does not do it justice. When I came up from the dive, the first words out of my mouth were, "That was the coolest thing I've ever seen on a dive."
Let's just say...I will be back. And not only that! But Allie decided to try diving and ended up doing not just one, but FOUR dives over the course of the trip. Anyways, here's a video I put together to try to summarize some of the "cool" things I got to see and then some photos below. Enjoy!
days seventy-six thru eighty-seven: december 14 thru 25:
On our first day, we set course thru the Dampier Strait. Johannes spent several years on the boat Pindito (the original live aboard that discovered Raja Ampat for diving), which had a well-known marine biologist on board. He learned how to spot and approach large marine animals. He proved his skills on our first day, allowing us to spend time with a pod of 100+ spotted dolphins surfing our bow wake, several bryde's whales, and a second pod of 100+ spinner dolphins. Definitely a great sign that this was going to be a great trip.
days seventy-six thru eighty-seven: december 14 thru 25:
We decided to break up our 11 day trip into three separate posts. The first is about the boat and the crew, the second highlighting our land excursions and the third specifically diving. Enjoy!
After barely making our flight to Sorong, we were greeted by Gian Paolo, the Italian owner of the Samambaia, the liveaboard we would spend the next 11 days on. Samambaia is a brand new Phinisi, which is a traditional Indonesian wooden sailing vessel.
day seventy-three: december 11, 2015:
After a casual wake up, we had another excellent breakfast at the Temple Lodge and headed to Ubud, where we stayed at an awesome Airbnb. Our host, Heather was from Australia and had built a large modern Javanese joglo overlooking some rice terraces just north of the center of Ubud. It was simply great. It was close enough to the center of Ubud to explore town, but also far enough away to enjoy the peace and quiet of the countryside.
day seventy-one: december 9, 2015:
Traveling from Gili Meno to Bingin was one of the longest transit days we've had. Not just time-wise, but the combination of traveling by boat and by car. First, we caught the 8:50 AM public boat from Gili Meno to Gili Trawangan. There we waited for the 11:30 AM fast boat to Padang Bai. We arrived at Padang Bai around 1:45 PM and boarded a small shuttle for the 1.5-2 hour drive toward Bingin. We somehow ended up in a small van fit for eight passengers, but the driver squeezed ten people in. While in transit, the driver stopped two times and swapped passengers with other vans. Needless to say...it was a cluster.
day sixty-eight: december 6, 2015:
We spent the morning in transit driving to Bangsal to take the boat to Gili Meno. We had found a deal on Agoda for a steeply discounted room at Seri Resort on the northeast side of Gili Meno. I wasn't quite sure what to expect as we took the horse cart from the port to the hotel, but turning the last corner into the hotel, I was pleasantly surprised. Seri Resort is a beautiful resort right on the beach with a pool, the hotel reception and restaurant just behind. After the half day of transit, we spent the rest of the afternoon by the pool.
day sixty-six: december 4, 2015:
Today we rented a scooter from our hotel and explored around Kuta Lombok. We've heard from a lot of people that Lombok is what Bali was 30 years ago. First we stopped in town, which is just a small main intersection with small, simple shops and restaurants leading away from the center. Our friends, Zak and Gena, recommended a small place called The Corner, where we had some great smoothies and sandwiches. After, we headed west and explored three nearby beaches - Mawun, Mawi, and Selong Balanak. The road to Mawun was a small dirt road leading off the main road. We weren't too sure what to expect, but once we arrived, it opened up into an open cove with an incredible beach. There were only maybe five other visitors there and only a few kids trying to sell us pineapples.
day fifty-nine: november 27, 2015: chiang mai to phuket
We said goodbye to Chiang Mai and made our way to Phuket, where we booked a sailing trip over the next couple of days with our best friends, Hajime and Maily. Jonathan found Charter Catamarans after a lot of google searching online. Bob, an Australian who now lives in Thailand, owns the business and was very easy to work with and extremely helpful. He coordinated everything for us including the hotel the night before setting sail and also the airport transfers.
day sixty: november 28, 2015:
We boarded our new home, a catamaran named Oasis, and started our 5 day/4 night sail around Phang Nga Bay with our captain, Bao, and our cook, Nong.
Not too long after boarding the boat, we made our first stop at Ko Hae (Coral Island). Bao started tossing over pieces of bread into the water and there were dozens of fish coming up to the surface. Maily and I were happy observing from a good distance but the boys had bananas to the feed to the fish and it was just so cool to see all the fish swarm around them just to get what they could. We then made our way to Ko Racha Yai further south for some more snorkeling, fish feeding and to spend the night.
Previous to the trip, the weather forecasts had worried us, with forecasted thunderstorms the entire time we were to be on the boat. We were pleasantly surprised that we were able to dodge the rain most of the time and we were even treated to some awesome sunsets and sunrises.
On our first night we discovered that Nong was an incredible cook. That night we had tom yum soup, green curry and a squid dish. This meal set the stage for the rest of the trip. Let's just say, that we looked forward to every time Nong would yell KIN KAO!!! which means the food is ready in Thai.
day sixty-one: november 29, 2015:
Jonathan doesn't like to miss a sunrise, so he set his alarm bright and early for just before 6AM. It's always easier to watch the sunrise when all you have to do is poke your head out a hatch in the ceiling of your room to see if it's worth getting up for.
From Ko Racha Yai we headed north to Ko Mai Thon for some more snorkeling. The seas were rough in the morning as the winds were blowing one direction and the tides moving in the opposite direction. I was laying on the nets in the front of the catamaran and got tossed by a wave and soaked in the process. The same wave went straight into the hatch above our room sadly soaking our bed. Thankfully, we were able to easily dry them as we sailed during the day.
Next, we headed to Koh Khai Nok next to its sister island Ko Kaynock, sometimes referred to as Egg Island. This island is the end of many day tours and Bao told us that in high season sometimes there are so many people on its beach that you can barely see the sand from a distance. We hooked up to a buoy off the shore of Koh Khai Nok where there was a small restaurant. We set off in the kayaks to get to shore. We decided to call this couple's disaster island. As we came ashore, Jonathan jumped out of the kayak and tried to help me out. The water began to rush back out and a small wave overturned the kayak throwing me into the sand. Not a very pleasant experience, but we made it ashore! Hajime and Maily had a similar experience. After having some drinks and snacks we went to launch our kayaks. Thankfully we made it out safely. Hajime and Maily, however, didn't have such luck. As they launched into the water the boat turned parallel to the beach and flipped again and Maily got soaked and their GoPro went straight to the bottom. Thankfully, Bao saw they had lost something and as soon as we made it back to the boat he jumped in the kayak and paddled over to help them. After beaching his kayak he found the GoPro without a problem. Not sure how it was able to find it so quickly, but maybe that's what makes him the captain.
We headed a little further for safe harbor to spend the night off the coast of Ko Yao Yai.
day sixty-two: november 30, 2015:
In the morning we sailed around the north end of Ko Yao Yai and headed thru the channel between Ko Yao Yai and Ko Yao Noi toward Ko Hong. Ko Hong has an enclosed lagoon on its north side. We hooked up to a buoy immediately outside the entry into the lagoon. After some short snorkeling, we got into the kayaks and decided to explore.
More excellent food from Nong. This time fresh spring rolls and pad see ew and salad.
To the right of the entry to the lagoon is a small beach with a explorable cave area. Bao lead the way and we climbed up into a small opening that came out above the beach. Pretty cool!
After some more snorkeling, Jonathan climbed up some hanging ladders and jumped from the cliffs above. After his attempts, some more tourist boats showed up and a whole crew of people started climbing and jumping. One guy climbed very high up above the end of the ladder and did a very graceful slow backflip. Another captain asked Bao where he was headed and he told him where we had been that day and our next stop. The other captain asked, "Why so many places?" and Bao replied "Why not?" Awesome response!
On our way to Railay Beach (our stop for the night), we stopped at Ko Poda for some more snorkeling and fish feeding.
At Railay we enjoyed another great sunset and more amazing food from Nong. After dinner Bao took us ashore for a few hours. We sat on the beach and enjoyed some beers and snacks.
Tonight's dinner was soup, a squid dish and two chicken dishes.
day sixty-three: december 1, 2015: railay beach to koh phi phi
Today was Jonathan's birthday and Maily made this sweet sign for the boat! We woke up just after sunrise and watched fishermen drive their long tail boat in circles, casting their nets and repeatedly slapping the surface of the water to stun the fish and drive them into their trap. Below is a video that Maily took. Make sure you listen for Hajime's commentary! Its worth it. Bao called them over and we traded some ice cold water bottles for a few fresh fish for lunch!
Fresh egg omelettes filled with veggies and sausage was for breakfast today.
After breakfast we boarded the dingy and headed ashore to take a peek at Diamond Cave. On the way we came across some local monkeys just hanging out and chewing on electrical lines. The cave was actually more impressive than we had expected. You could also hear and see bats hanging out on the roof of the cave.
Today we discovered that the boat had a shade that could be set up. This was quite a relief for Hajime's lobster red body.
We made our way to Chicken and Tupa Island to check out a sand bar, only visible at low tide. It was pretty cool to walk across, until you realized that you had to walk the whole length back -- walking in water near waist deep is a lot harder and tiring that you think!
Today's lunch was fried fish cakes, a squid dish and fried rice.
We made another short snorkeling stop at two small islands Ko Po Da Nok and Ko Khom.
Our next stop was Bamboo Island, where Nong warned us that there would be a lot of Chinese tourists. And literally, the second that we walked onto the beach, Hajime said that it felt like we just walked to China. Everyone there was 98% Chinese, all taking pictures laying in the sand, women in coordinated outfits with matching scarves, people buried in sand and everyone laughing because of the body parts they made out of sand...so thought we would join in on the fun and take some pictures of our own. Who knew that Bamboo Island was going to be so fun to people watch!
We made our way to Koh Phi Phi, which was our last night with Hajime and Maily and Nong made some of the best pork tenderloin we ever had. We were also treated to a nice partial rainbow and sunset.
We spent the rest of the night playing Settlers of Catan -- which I won both times, whohooo! Then, laid out on the nets and just talking until the early morning.
day sixty-four: december 2, 2015: koh phi phi to phuket
Our last sunrise on the boat was awesome. We shared one last delicious meal of khao tom (rice porridge) with shrimp with Hajime and Maily, before leaving them at Koh Phi Phi. We were super bummed to see them go but know we'll see them soon!
Jonathan and I continued on to Phuket with Nong and Bao for the next four hours...and even got to see a few dolphins in the distance.
day sixty-five: december 3, 2015: phuket to lombok
Jonathan and I spent the night at Ao Chalong Resort and relaxed by the pool before heading out the next morning to Lombok, Indonesia. Another full day of travel thanks to Jonathan's flight booking skills.
day fifty-eight: november 26, 2015: doi suthep + waterfall + thai thanksgiving
We headed up to Wat Phra That Doi Suthep with Kristina, hoping for a nice view over Chiang Mai because it was hazy when we were there the last time. We caught a songthaew, red pick up truck taxi, for 50 baht a person to the temple, just outside the North Gate.
Because its one of the most famous temples in the area, there were a ton of people and it quickly became a little overwhelming.
day fifty-seven: november 25, 2015: yee peng loy krathong festival
We had lunch at Dash! again and ended up chatting with the chef of the restaurant. Noi grew up in Chiang Mai but moved to the states and went to culinary school there. Then, came back to Chiang Mai, built this beautiful teakhouse that her son owns and manages the restaurant out of. Jonathan said it was the best khao soi he's ever tasted and my phad thai was pretty yummy too! Noi even made us these awesome apple pie rolls with vanilla ice cream and homemade caramel sauce. YUM! We wished we could have stayed longer but had to make our way to the lantern festival, but we did make reservations to spend Thanksgiving with her at Dash.
day fifty-five cont'd: november 23, 2015: chiang mai
We took a short flight to Chiang Mai and immediately headed over to our favorite restaurant there. I thought it would be closed, but sure enough we got there at about 10:45pm and they were still open! Jonathan had his khao soi and I ordered garlic and pepper pork and were so happy that everything tasted just the way we remembered!
While wandering around the night bazaar we happened upon a small lot with food stalls and live music. Last year, if we remembered correctly, this was an abandoned lot. It was a pleasant surprise, so we stopped and had a drink and listened to some music.
The streets were pretty quiet that night, but all the decorations in preparation for the festivities over the next three days were up.
day fifty-six: november 24, 2015: chiang mai
We spent most of the day catching up with Carina, a friend of mine from high school, who also worked at TOMS. She's had her own adventure through Southeast Asia, back again for round two and heading off to work in Brisbane for a bit. It's crazy how easily you can feel at home with friends even if you're half way across the world.
Off of Carina's recommendation, I went to Khunka Massage for an hour Thai massage and it was THE best. She definitely worked by back and told me many times to relax buut it was so good. If you find yourself in Chiang Mai, definitely go here. It was 250 baht for a Thai massage and 600 baht for an oil massage.
Jonathan wandered around the old city and I met up with him at Wat Phantao after my massage.
We met up with Carina and Kristina for dinner at Dash! Teakhouse Restaurant and Bar in the southeast corner of the old city. It was this beautiful teakhouse tucked away in the back streets, which a friendly staff and amazing food.
We made our way to Wat Phan Tao to watch a pre-ceremony for the Yi Peng Loy Krathong Festival.
The night was filled with meditation, candles, and colorful lanterns. We walked over to the river to check our more of the festivities and released our own krathong, which are floating objects made of banana leaves, flowers, a candle, and incense sticks. The festival is to celebrate the good and wash away any misfortunes.
We had to stop and get a snack on the way. Nothing like fresh rotee with banana, cheese and condensed milk!
day fifty-five: november 23, 2015: grand palace + wat pho
Before catching a flight to Chiang Mai, we spent the day exploring the Grand Palace and Wat Pho with Kristina.
Urai and Taya told us to go as early as possible to avoid the crowds and the heat. We took a boat up the Chao Phraya River to the Grand Palace. If you go, don't wear a tank top or shorts. There is a very strict dress code and they have clothes for rent, if you don't meet the guidelines. You are required to leave a 200 baht deposit, which is returned when we return the clothes.
The Grand Palace consists of a number of different buildings, halls, pavilions and the official residence of the Kings of Siam since 1782. Once you enter the grounds, it was not hard to get sensory overload, in a good way. There was amazing architecture and detail everywhere you looked.
Along the periphery of areas of the complex were extremely detailed paintings depicting the story of Rama.
We walked over to Wat Pho, which houses one of the largest indoor reclining Buddhas. And, WOW. It was gi-normous! This image of the reclining Buddha represents the entry of Buddha into Nirvana and the end of all reincarnations. The statue is 45 feet high and 138 feet long.
After a relaxed lunch at the Deck by the River, we took a cab back to our hotel to pick up our bags and headed to the airport.
day fifty-two: november 20, 2015: 27+ hour travel day
Today was a pretty long travel day. We flew Nadi > Auckland > Sydney > Bangkok, totaling to 30 hours of travel door to door. Crazy, yes. We could have gone from Auckland straight to Bangkok, but went the money saving route. Atleast we got fed on the plane?
Nonetheless, we finally made it to Bangkok!
day forty-seven: november 15, 2015:
We attended the resort's orientation, where we got to meet the other guests and hear about all the available activities for the week. I ended up winning the door prize, which is a free excursion called The Jewel of Fiji Tour, which will do on Tuesday.
It pretty much rained all day today so we mostly stayed in the hotel room, working on a puzzle that the hotel had. We're all hoping that this isn't indicative of what the rest of the week will be like!
day forty-eight: november 16, 2015: suva + lovo dinner
We joined some of the other guests on a trip to Fiji's capital, Suva, which was about an hour drive from the resort. We stopped by the Parliament House and Fiji Museum to learn about the history and culture of the Fijian people. The hustle and bustle of the city had us ready to enjoy some down time at the resort.
Tonight, the resort hosted a lovo dinner, which is a traditional Fijian way of cooking, where all the food is cooked underground. The night was topped off with some Fijian cultural dance and music.
day forty-nine: november 17, 2015: the jewel of fiji tour
We took a long tail boat up the Navau River. We passed villages, farmlands, rainforests, rapids, and some cascading waterfalls. About 45 minutes up the river, we stopped at a waterfall where Jonathan, his dad, and others on the tour took a quick dip to cool off. Then, we boarded a bamboo raft also known as a bilibili, which was, and still is, a means of transport down the river. We spent the rest of the afternoon touring a Fijian village established by an Englishman named John Humphrey Danford in the early 1800s. We had another lovo meal and the villagers shared their song, dance and art with us.
day fifty: november 18, 2015:
We enjoyed another relaxing day by the beach, then walked over to a neighboring resort, called the Uprising for lunch. On our way back to our resort, we stopped by the Arts and Culture center and met a local woman, named Kina who worked there. We found out that her daughter worked at the resort we were staying at and it didn't take her long to invite us to her home the next day.
day fifty-one: november 19, 2015: kina + village
It was another relaxing, lazy day before we headed back to the Arts and Culture center to have dinner with Kina. We were all impressed at how quickly she opened up and enjoyed telling us about her life and her family her in Fiji. She is a single mom raising four kids, one girl and three boys, ages 7 - 30. Then, we took a short bus ride to her village, where we got to see where she lived and meet her two youngest sons. They live in a very simple home that her husband built many years ago. It's basically one room, where the eat, entertain, and sleep, with a separate room to cook. She was so proud to be able to show her home to us. It was a humbling experience to say the least. She lives a very simple life, yet just seems so happy and full of life. It proved to Jonathan and me that family and a strong community is sometimes all you need.
The following quote was shared with us at The Jewel of Fiji Tour and I have to say, it's quickly become the theme of Fiji and the Fijian people, who are so friendly and welcoming.
There are no strangers, only friends you haven't met yet. - W. B. Yeats
day forty-five: november 13, 2015: travel day
Today we caught a mid-afternoon flight to Nadi, Fiji to meet Jonathan's parents for a week of relaxing at a timeshare trade they were able to get. Since we were staying near Pacfic Harbour on the south side of the main island of Vitu Levu, we had to take a van for a two and a half hour drive from the Nadi airport. We stopped for some corn at a local stand by the side of the road on our way. Being in the same time zone as New Zealand, but much further east on the globe, the sun set a few hours earlier than what we had gotten used to. By the time we arrived at the hotel it was already dark.
day forty-three: november 11, 2015: auckland + sky tower
The airport shuttle picked us up at about nine and we were pleasantly surprised to see another set of friends from the Milford Track on the bus. It was so nice to see them and say our proper goodbyes before they headed to Nelson to do another multi-day hike, troopers! We're looking forward to visiting them in Tasmania one day. As we took off we waved bye bye to the Remarkables in the distance.
We arrived in Auckland at about 2pm and went searching for food in the nearby neighborhood. We stumbled along this cute alley, lined with different eateries and outdoor seating. So happy we found this place or else we would have ended up at some fast-food burger joint.
We walked into the downtown area for dinner then made our way to the Sky Tower for sunset. It felt so strange to be back in a city, with so many cars and so many people. Jonathan and I got really used to the laid-back atmosphere of the South Island, with little to no people around.
**Side story: Couple years ago, I was in Sydney, Australia, for work and my co-worker and I took a taxi to Bondi Beach for lunch. We hit pretty crazy traffic and it felt like we weren't moving at all. I looked out the window and saw a girl walking down the street that looked like a friend of a friend, named Andrea. I thought to myself,"There's no way that's Andrea.". Then, I quickly remembered that she moved to Australia recently so I called out her name and it was her! We ended up spending the whole day with her and she showed us around Bondi, had lunch at a fish and chips spot, and took us to the Sculptures by the Sea exhibit. We couldn't believe that we ran into each other on the other side of the world.
We didn't have anything planned for Auckland so I posted on Facebook asking for some suggestions. Andrea was one of the first to respond and said that she would be in Auckland for work!
We were sitting outside the hotel when a familiar face approached us and was like, "Jonathan, right?". Darren and his wife, Millie, are friends with Jonathan's old roommate from LA....and happened to be staying at the hotel attached to the Sky Tower. What are the chances? They have been traveling for two weeks and it was their last night in Auckland. Then, we were taking photos to send back to their friend, when another guy came up and was like, "Hey, you're Jonathan, right. I'm friends with your cousin in SF." Soooo crazy! Preston went to school with Jonathan's cousin and we actually met him a year ago at her birthday party. He was traveling with his cousin and it was their last night too!
Such a fun surprise to run into people we didn't expect to!
day forty-four: november 12, 2015: auckland war memorial museum
We didn't have anything planned while we were in Auckland, so we tagged along with Darren and Millie to the Auckland War Memorial Museum. The museum consists of a war memorial recognizing the fallen New Zealand soldiers of the 20th century and exhibits of New Zealand's history and natural history.
Walking between two of the exhibits was the view of the globe from a Kiwi's perspective.
Before humans arrived in New Zealand, no mammals lived on the islands. Because of this, there were birds that took their places in the food chain. The largest of those birds (now extinct) was the Moa. Below you can see the varying sizes of the different species of Moa. The largest was the largest known bird to live. Unfortunately, the Maori later hunted it to extinction.
While some of the bird life on the island has vanished after the introduction of small mammals to the island, some are still scraping by on the endangered list. Below is a Kiwi which is on that list.
The Maori history and artifacts on display were pretty incredible. In the middle of the museum was a traditional Maori community hall that was being restored. Every column of the hall is a different figure that represents an important family member or an ancestor that passed. There was also great history on the Polynesian people exploring and moving from island to island as far east as Hawaii and as far south as New Zealand. They did this all very deliberately with boats that could hold everything they needed to survive and build new homes at the next set of islands.
On display was an original war canoe or a waka. The state this boat was in was very impressive given its age. It was also HUGE and all the carvings were very intricate. All in all, the Maori artifacts in this museum were definitely worth the visit.
After the museum, we wandered back to the downtown area for a snack then made our way to the harbour area.
We joined Darren and Millie for dinner at The Depot, before they headed out to their flight back to LA. If you're in Auckland, you have to try this place! We got a bunch of shared plates and were impressed with plate after plate. We ate bone marrow, fried snapper wings, squid ink pasta, and king belly. YUM!
After dinner, we headed back up to the top of Sky City and watched our last sunset in New Zealand, for now anyways! We will definitely be back!
