Tag: rocks

Courtenay,BC

Place 89 – Day 1: Courtenay, BC🇨🇦 – Forbidden Plateau & ‘Medicine Bowls’

Kim & Curtis Hale

Forbidden Plateau

We work up at a good time again and Kim went out to get us breakfast.

We ate our breakfast and slowly got ready and managed to head out around 11:00.

We drove out to Forbidden Plateau which took us about 1 hour and 30 mins.

Forbidden Plateau used to be a ski resort but now it’s a short hike which allows everyone to get a great view of the water and surrounding areas. It was really quite beautiful!

‘Medicine Bowls’

We drove back down the road we came and took a sharp left to head down towards medicine bowls. This is a small waterfall with rock pools that people jump into and also just swim in. We didn’t have much interest in doing either, because it’s cold and jumping in is scary, but we walked to take a look.

We parked up in a safe location as, unless you have a truck, it’s not possible to drive the entire way there.

We walked for about 20 minutes to make it to the pools. There was a little hike involved but it was beautiful!

We really, really enjoyed this area! We were there for way longer than we expected but we just enjoyed looking at the water, sitting down and relaxing and just enjoying the quiet.

We walked back to the car and saw someone try and drive through the part just beyond where we parked where it was not really possible to drive and they scraped/damaged the bottom of their car!

Beer & Snacks

We drove form here to the nearby town Courtenay, where we had actually been before when we visited Comox in the winter a couple of years ago. We got ourselves a beer at a brewery and relaxed.

We left there and walked to a restaurant to get a quick snack. The snack turned into a huge meal and we really didn’t want that much food. We ate what we could and then we drove back to the hotel, which took about 1 hour 10 minutes.

We were tired, as expected, so we relaxed for a bit at the hotel and then went out to get some snacks and drinks for the evening.

We leave this area tomorrow and head out to a new area to do very little, though!

This Time Last Year

Mr And Mrs Hale

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Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 416: Vancouver, BC – Whytecliff Park

Kim & Curtis Hale

We woke up pretty late and Kim had a chat with her family as it was her sister’s birthday today.

Once that was done, we had some breakfast and slowly got ready for the day.

Once we were ready, we drove up to North Vancouver and to Whytecliff Park. We had been in this area before, but not in this specific park.

When we got there, we climbed around some rocks and got some really nice vantage points! It was a pretty nice place but pretty busy for what it was,along it a little bit challenging to get around.

We left here nor too long after we arrived and the weather started to get colder and less nice.

We drove to where we thought another park was, but it turned out just to be a fancy housing estate, so we left here.

We ended up in a place we had been to before and grabbed ourselves a coffee before walking around the seawall.

It was starting to get really windy, cold and feeling like it would rain, so we drove back home.

On the way back, we checked the supermarket to see how busy it is, as it is Thanksgiving weekend here in Vancouver, so everyone will be shopping. Sure enough, it was super busy with a large line, so we decided to come back later.

We headed home and had some pizza for dinner and watched the film Tangled which Kim really wanted to watch.

Once we were done with that, we went out to the shop at around 20:45 to get it done with next to no people there, so it was much faster and easier.

We came back home and played some games and chilled out for the evening.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 409: Vancouver, BC – Shannon Falls & Porteau Cove Beach

Kim & Curtis Hale

Shannon Falls

We got up and Kim made some breakfast, and we relaxed for a short time whilst we ate this.

We got ourselves ready and hopped in the car for a 1 hour drive.

We drove up to Shannon Falls, which is almost in Whistler!

We got there and it seemed a little smokey again, which was unfortunate, but we continued anyway.

We saw the falls from the floor and from a small viewpoint and they were certainly pretty!

We continued walking towards a hiking trail, only to be stopped by a fence as the trail is closed for gondola repairs! We were going to do a nice hike, but due to this, we just left instead.

Some Beach Somewhere

Kim found a beach fairly close, so we drove onward to that as there are apparently seals there!

It took us down a strange gravel road which lead to a ‘beach’ right by some construction and logging sites!

It really wasn’t interesting at all, so we got back in the car and drove onward to another location.

Porteau Cove Beach

We drove to Porteau Cove which has a beach and a little pier. It’s mostly for people boating, but there is a beach which you can walk on.

The beach wasn’t sandy, it was just a lot of fallen trees and some rocks, but we made the most of it by walking up and down this for a very long time!

Kim climbed a large rock, only to get worried about getting down which was some entertainment for a bit, whilst she tried to get down safely (which she did!).

We got tired, hungry and thirsty, so we slowly made our way up to the car.

We drove back home and when we got back, we had some pizza and watched the film Brave.

We played some Crash Bandicoot and watched some more TV for the evening.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Austin,TX

Place 79 – Day 2: Austin,TX – Jacob’s Well

Kim & Curtis Hale

Jacob’s Well

The weather wasn’t as warm today, but still plenty warm enough.

We planned to head out pretty early today, but we slept in a bit and then the bathroom was being used this morning so we couldn’t get showered, so we left around 12:00.

We headed out of Austin for 1 hour to a town called Wimberley. This town is home to Jacob’s Well, which is a large underwater cave which, during summer, people jump into.

The dark part of the water here is the well

This was named a well because it resembled one, back in the 1800s.

We were not here during the swimming season, but wanted to take a look.

We walked down some stairs which went through a nice tree covered walkway, which looked awesome.

We got down to the well and instantly noticed how tiny it was. On the photos the area looks large, but in actuality it was very small.

There were another couple there who were taking photos, so we had to work around them, but we got some pretty cool shots.

Jacob’s Well | Wimberley,TX

Rating:- 6/10

We left here after only 30 minutes, but did have a go on the swings they had there before we went.

Coffee, A Muffin & Big Tacos

We went for a coffee and a muffin in a really nice coffee shop called Blanco Brew in Wimberley.

We were really happy with the coffee shop. Incredible coffee, nice staff and a tasty muffin, which we got warmed up.

Blanco Brew | Winberley,TX

Rating:- 10/10

We left here and went for a taco each in a gas station, which apparently had really good tacos.

We thought they were alright, a little big and not enough meat, but the meat was good. Probably around a 7/10.

Playoff Hockey

We drove back home and then Curtis watched the first game of the Leafs playoff first round.

Whilst Curtis did this, Kim booked something really exciting for tomorrow, which will be fun! She then had to go out and get some lunch items for tomorrow.

Throwback Dinner

We had chicken pesto pasta for dinner, which is a travelling throwback dinner, but we went fancy and had red pesto instead, with a side of salad.

We watched the latest episode of Jane The Virgin and then went to sleep. Up at a decent time tomorrow!

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Bland Bay

Place 62 – Day 3: Bland Bay – Secret Cave!

Kim & Curtis Hale

We left the hotel nice and early, around 07:30 and then drove to McDonald’s to get a spot of breakfast.

After breakfast, we drove a car park over to the supermarket where we got some meat for the BBQ.

We left the supermarket and made the drive down to Bland Bay. A lot of the roads were gravel, but it was good fun! It was a straight road for 100km, so it was at least easy.

We got out to Bland Bay and just chilled out for a few hours in the blazing sun. It was delightful!

We were then told about a cave that we had to see in person as it was beautiful! With that, we all hopped on the boat and headed out there. The waves were causing our boat to bounce all over the place which waa great fun!

We arrived at the small, secluded beach and it was stunning!

We then had a look at the stream leading to the cave, which was also filled with rocks and seaweed, and it was quite choppy, with big waves rushing in.

That being said, we eventually started making our way out into the water, consistently getting stabbed by the sharp rocks. Josh then said he saw a stingray, which froze us both and we decided we weren’t moving!

We waited a while and saw nothing, so all got moving again. We swam the last part into the cave and it was well worth it! Unfortunately, we didn’t get any good photos of it, but there was a deep pool of water with light perfectly shining onto it from above. Beautiful!

We got in the water and chilled a little, before we got back out and had to make the treacherous swim back.

The swim was actually ok, but we did get stabbed by multiple rocks again.

We got back on the boat and headed back to the house.

We then got the BBQ going and Josh cooked up a storm! Once we ate our food, we had some games of Cards Against Humanity and Josh sent out the Contiki to catch some fish.

As they were bringing it back in, there must’ve been a shark on it, or two, as the power pulled the whole whinch down the bank and the contiki went underwater! There was a made dash to pull it in and it eventually relaxed, but most of the hooks were gone from the line! Another eventful weekend here so far!

We packedup the outside after this and then went inside for some sleep, after we got some great night photos!

This time last year!

Poroporoaki!

– Mr & Mrs Hale

Kaitaia

Place 69 – Day 1: Kaitaia – An Octopus, Crabs & Clever Seagulls

Kim & Curtis Hale

We said goodbye to our HelpX hosts in the morning when they went off to work and then we had breakfast, got ourselves ready and tidied the room.

We left the house after packing the car and drove up to Kaitaia.

Kaitaia is our base town for a couple of things we want to do as it is in the perfect location.

We got to our accomodation, a nice B&B with a lovely pool and it also backs onto a river! The owner was nice enough to let us check in early and gave us some hints. It’s actually a really nice room! A little small, but really nice.

We got unpacked here and went to find some lunch.

We drove down to the town, parked up and walked around. There wasn’t much there, so we got a subway amd drove back to the room to eat it.

After lunch, we went out for a bit of the evening. We are near the 90 mile beach, which extends over a lot of Northland.

We got to a point called Shipwreck Bay, which we thought had a shipwreck there, but we didn’t see anything and we also had to either pay to park there or drive onto the beach, which we didn’t really want to do.

We drove back up the road and found the perfect parking spot (for free) and wandered onto the beach. There were a lot of rocks but we wanted to walk on them, so that is what we did! We walked towards shipwreck bay until we couldn’t go any further! Along the way, we saw fish & a lot of crabs in between the rocks.

As we were about to head back, Kim saw a crab sitting next to the water and took a bit of a closer look, whilst filming, and to both of our surprise, there was an octopus which decided it wanted the crab!

We stuck around this area for a while, watching the octopus move around and hoping it did something else. Low and behold, it did! It wanted to eat a fish, so it grabbed it.

We moved on from the octopus and then saw a seagull swoop down and grab a crab. It flew away with it and then drop it. It then picked it back up again, flew higher and dropped it again. We thought this was accidental but it turns out it was deliberate to try and crack it open, which it did!

We left the beach after walking back and stopped at the supermarket to get some drinks for the next few weeks.

We got back and watched some videos until we got hungry and then we went to one of the few places for dinner. Curtis got a steak with peppercorn sauce and Kim got a fancy chicken burger. Our food was alright but the service was awful so all in all we gave it a 5/10.

When we were back home, we watched some renovation TV shows on the TV we have in the room.

Tomorrow we have a cooked breakfast here at 08:30 so we’ll be up for that!

This time last year!

Poroporoaki!

– Mr & Mrs Hale

Kerikeri

Place 68 – Day 9: Kerikeri – Rainbow Falls

Kim & Curtis Hale

We were up a bit later today, but it was also our last day of this HelpX.

We had about 1/3 of the outside of the house remaining to clean and the same amount of windows inside and out also.

We got all of this done and then had some pesto pasta and watched some TV. After lunch, we got all sun lotion’d up and got in the car to go down to Rainbow Falls, which is a waterfall just down the road from where we are.

We walked down to the waterfall and decided not to go into the water as it was full if very slippery rocks and quite dirty.

We did notice a lot of rocks down stream, so we walked down there instead. We found an area to enter the rocks and then walked down them. We got pretty far, navigating the rocks and trying not to fall in the water.

We eventually ran out of rocks near us so we walked all the way back to the waterfall and headed to the car.

We drove to the supermarket and got an ice cream which was much needed in the hot weather! We also got a doughnut from a local doughnut shop.

Once our host got home, she got our cheese and crackers, so we sat out on the sun eating cheese! A great end to the day.

We then relaxed and talked about our days and then our host made us a delicious spaghetti bolognese!

We watched some of the latest Kong film and then went to bed.

We will probably be leaving here around 10:00-11:00 tomorrow morning.

This time last year!

Poroporoaki!

– Mr & Mrs Hale

Auckland

Place 49 – Day 336: Auckland – Long Bay

Kim & Curtis Hale

Kim woke up at 09:00 and made coffee and breakfast. Curtis woke up at 10:00 and then we had our breakfast.

We finished breakfast and got showered before we went out to Long Bay which took us just around 20 minutes to get to. The weather was good before we left, but it was not as great when we left but was still very warm.

We got to Long Bay and finally found a parking spot. It turns out that Long Bay is also a campsite as we had to go through that to get to the parking.

There were people all around on the grass areas just chillimg and/or BBQing!

We walked down to the beach and just kept walking! We walked left to start with, including past the rocks at the end of the beach. We walked for as far as we could before turning around and heading the other way.

We got to the other side but there was nothing there and the weather was starting to get bad, so we made our way back to the car.

We got back home and went back out right away to get the shopping for the week.

We got back from that and Curtis watched hockey whilst Kim went out with Tabitha. They sat and had a chat at Tabitha’s house for a while and it was great to catch up!

Once Kim got back home, she made a tremendous dinner! We had Moroccan lamb with a couscous filled capsicum and a side salad. Along with this, we also had homemade tzatziki!

After dinner, we had some strawberries and watched some TV.

Tomorrow will be so much fun!

Be sure to use code MRANDMRSHALE for 10% Off at Capitolawatches.com!

This time last year!

Poroporoaki!

– Mr & Mrs Hale

Auckland

Place 49 – Day 297: Auckland – Couples Weekend Away

Kim & Curtis Hale

We were up at 07:30, which was a little late for the time we needed to be up as Josh and Danielle arrived at that time also! We rushed and got everything we needed into the car and then off we went.

We stopped at mcdonalds for the mandatory road trip breakfast, and then went onward to Matakana.

Josh’s grandparents have a house up in Matakana, which we were going to for the weekend.

We stopped at the supermarket en-route so that Kim could get the food for dinner as she was making it.

Once we got to the house, we stopped out stuff and went for a walk down to the coast side where we walked along rocks to a small beach, then we walked up the side of the hill for a nice view!

Both of us cut our feet on the oyster shells around the rocks, so Danielle checked Kim’s feet to ensure they were ok!

We left this area and walked back, through all of the incredibly deep, thick mud, and made it back to shore.

When we got back, we walked all the way back to the house where we had some homemade pizza from the pizza oven!

After pizza, we relaxed for a bit and then went down to the coast to use Josh’s new boat! The weather had changed so it wasn’t as nice as it was, but the boat ride was still fun. We went to a nice beach off the coast, which had beautiful sand and no-one there. When we pulled up there were two stingrays there!

We decided to leave that beach as it was getting windy and we headed to Matakana via the water. On the way, Josh realised we may not have enough fuel, so we drove back and ki km and Josh went onto the rope swing instead.

Once we finished this, we went back to the house and got ready to have dinner.

Kim and Danielle made chilli and lime chicken with corn on the cob and home-made wedges.

We ate our dinner in front of the fire outside and then went inside to play cards.

We played rummy as well as drank some of Josh’s 15 year Glennfiddich, our honey bourbon and some Jameson from Josh’s grandad.

We all eventually got very tired as it had been a long day, but an incredible one! We had great fun even just chilling out drinking and playing cards.

This time last year!

Poroporoaki!

– Mr & Mrs Hale