Tag: Sand

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 924: Vancouver, BC – Sleeping Is Great!

Kim & Curtis Hale

We woke up at around 12:00, which was far too late, but we slept through our alarms so we clearly needed to sleep. On the plus side, we love sleep, so we weren’t too annoyed.

The weather was meant to be bad today, but it was actually alright, so we decided that once we get ready, we’ll for a walk.

We had some breakfast sandwiches and then we got ourselves ready and went out to the beach, but we walked to Peaked Pies first to get ourselves a coffee! They do some of the best coffee we have had in Vancouver so far, so why not walk there and get some?

We then walked to the beach and even say at the beach and just watched the world go buy. It started to rain a little, so we took that as a sign to head back.

We walked back along the seawall and stopped off at a shop to get a few things for dinner.

We just had a simple dinner and once we finished eating, we watched a film! We watched Army of The Dead which was pretty silly but actually not bad, though a little long.

Kim then ordered some things she needed to order for work and then we watched a little more TV. The weather is not meant to be good tomorrow, so we plan to do very little.

This Time Last Year

Mr And Mrs Hale

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Bland Bay

Place 62 – Day 4: Bland Bay – Filleting A Fish 🐟

Kim & Curtis Hale

After waking about 09:30, we sat and Curtis had coffee and then we spent the majority of the day just chilling in the sun.

We had some pizza for lunch and Josh got back from fishing and then fell asleep.

Once Josh woke back up, he went to fillet some fish.

Kim wanted to see how to do it, so she was shown by Josh and then she had a go!

After filleting the fish, we turned on the BBQ and had some more meat for dinner!

We then ate, drank a bit and then played a few rounds of Cards Against Humanity.

We are up around 08:00 tomorrow to head back to Auckland.

This time last year!

Poroporoaki!

– Mr & Mrs Hale

Kaitaia

Place 69 – Day 3: Kaitaia – Te Paki Sand Dunes, The Top of NZ & Spirits Bay

Kim & Curtis Hale

Post breakfast, we were in the car and driving further up north! By 09:00, we were on our way and it was already getting warm!

We drove 1.5 hours up north to get to Te Paki stream. Here, in the middle of nowhere, there are giant sand dunes! Kim had read online that you can rent a ‘sandboard’ and go sandboarding on the dunes.

Once we arrived, we got ourselves a couple of sandboards and headed up the dunes. We were advised to go right to the highest dune to get a great view and then slide back down, which is what we did. What we didn’t realise was how incredible steep all of the dunes are and the effort it takes to get to the top, including getting sand blown in your face all the time!

Kim struggling with the dune!

We did get some amazing views at the top of the highest dune, which we soaked in whilst we relaxed after the tiresome climb!

The first sandboard down looked very high but wasn’t very fast at all.

We then went down the next hill, which was smaller but had way more speed and was great fun!

Luckily, as we were leaving, the sun got much warmer, so it was the perfect timing!

We had a drink and then drove from here to Cape Reinga, which is the top most point of New Zealand. Once we got here, we parked and walked down to the lighthouse, seeing the amazing views on the way. Apparently, two different oceans combine at this point also, which is what we assume the waves in the middle of the sea are!

We walked back to the car after seeing the lighthouse and drove to a beach over a gravel road, which took a while! The beach was called spirits bay and it was beautiful! We sat and ate our homemade ham, beef, cheese & salad sandwiches and then got back to the car to drive back to the apartment.

We chilled out for a while whilst we recovered from our tiredness and then we got back in the car and drove to the town to find food. We got a kebab each, which was an odd thing to choose but was delicious!

We watched a cabin restoration TV show and some other TV and then got packed up to leave tomorrow morning.

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

Auckland

Place 49 – Day 299: Auckland – Baked Potatoes!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day;

Curtis got to work incredibly early and spent half the morning doing admin.

14 laptops arrived which Curtis then had to setup and configure, as well as install some more hardware inside. This took up all of the morning!

Curtis finished lunch and then had a remote session to complete. He luckily managed to complete that as he was having trouble connecting last week.

Most of the afternoon we then taken up by a possible virus on a server which Curtis then had to look into and resolve.

Both of us;

Once we were both home, we just had to go for a walk as the weather was incredible! We walked up to the shop to buy some baked beans for dinner.

For such a long time, Kim has wanted a baked potato for dinner, and we finally found a big enough potato to do so! Curtis got a ‘kumara’ (Sweet potato) for his.

We got back from our walk and had a baked potato with cheese and beans.

We then watched the first episode of the new Apprentice series and a few YouTube videos before going to sleep.

This time last year!

Poroporoaki!

– Mr & Mrs Hale

Auckland

Place 49 – Day 298: Auckland – Tāwharanui Beach & Fish Burgers!

Kim & Curtis Hale

We had a nice 10+ hour sleep last night, which made up for early start on Saturday!

We woke up at 09:30 and had a spot of breakfast before we got ready for the day and jumped in the car.

Josh drove us to Tāwharanui Beach, which is a beautiful surf beach! He weather wasn’t that great at times, but the rain held off and we have some great fun. We walked on the beach and onto the rocks, where there is a few rock pools which are beautiful clear water!

Kim jumped into The above pool, which was apparently very cold!

After the rocks, we went back and off them and up a little hull where we got a really nice view of the beach.

We left the beach and went back to Josh’s grandparents’ house, where we had some lunch. They made us some beer battered snapper burgers and battered sausages, which was excellent!

We then got packed up and got on the way home, but not before stopping at an the old ‘cementworks’ building, which is ruins of an old cement factory, which was pretty cool to see!

We drove on from here and headed towards home, stopping for an ice cream on the way back.

We had quite a bit of traffic on the way home, but we got back home at 16:15.

We popped down to the shop to get stuff for the week, and then went to McDonald’s for a coffee as Curtis got one for free through the monopoly promotion.

We got home and did a few chores, doing laundry, making lunch and a few other things.

We then booked some more accommodation and then had some leftover spaghetti Bolognese for dinner, which watching some YouTube videos.

After this, we got ready for bed and spoke to Kim’s family regarding the trip.

Back to work tomorrow, which is a shame as we’ve had such a fun weekend!

This time last year!

Poroporoaki!

– Mr & Mrs Hale

Auckland

Place 49 – Day 284: Auckland – Takapuna Beach Walk & Vietnamese Coffee

Kim & Curtis Hale

We woke up fairly early at around 09:00.

We had cereal for breakfast and watched a YouTube video.

After breakfast, Curtis watched the Leafs game and Kim chilled out.

After the Leafs game, we went out to Takapuna and went for a walk along the beach! The weather was absolutely beautiful.

Before we went to the beach, we went to a place called Nam Nam which is a Vietnamese street food place. We got a Vietnamese coffee and a Banh Mi each!

We ate our Banh Mi and drank our Vietnamese coffee and went to the beach.

There was a lot of dogs which was great for Kim. We walked up and down the beach and chatted for ages!

Shadows

Beach

Beach1

After the beach we went to the shop to get some food for tonight as well as the week.

After the shop, we went back home and relaxed for the evening.

We watched two episodes of a Swedish/British TV show, called Fallet, and then played a bit of fortnite which we haven’t done for a while!

After this, we had our lasagne we bought for dinner.

Post dinner, we watched No Offence (thanks Tom & Maggie for letting us know it’s out!) And then spoke to Kim’s family on FaceTime.

Curtis didn’t get his haircut today as he didn’t want to go somewhere that wasn’t his usual barber…That’s a next week job.

This time last year!

Poroporoaki!

– Mr & Mrs Hale

Auckland

Place 49 – Day 281: Auckland- Workout Action Shots

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day;

Curtis didn’t have to visit a client today, which was good!

Curtis got to work really early. He hit every light perfectly so didn’t have to queue anywhere!

Curtis finally had some work to do today and it felt good to be busy as the day went fast.

Both of us;

Once Kim got home, we went to the gym.

The gym wasn’t too busy so we could actually use what we wanted to use.

We started on the crosstrainer and then made our way to other machines.

We spent a while on leg machines and then moved to arm/upper body machines.

Workout

Workout2

After these, we did some sit ups, planking before we decided we were hungry and tired and went back home.

Kim made fajitas for dinner which were stunning as ever.

We watched videos and then went to sleep! Tomorrow is Friday!

This time last year!

Poroporoaki!

– Mr & Mrs Hale

Auckland

Place 49 – Day 279: Auckland – A McLaren?

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day;

Curtis had to contend with some traffic on the way to work but once he got there he made a coffee and got to it.

He had some admin to do for the morning as well as replying to emails.

At 09:00, Curtis left to go to a client to pickup a laptop. During the 6 minute drive, Curtis drove past the Lamborghini, McLaren, Porsche, Bentley & Aston Martin garages!

Curtis got to the client and had to wait briefly as the person he needed to speak to wasn’t quite there yet. Curtis eventually got the laptop and made his way back to the office.

On the way back, Curtis saw the McLaren showroom glass sliding doors open and a brand new McLaren came rolling out onto the road. He snapped a photo, of course.

Mclaren

Curtis got back to the office and for the rest of the day he setup the laptop he collected, but not without some challenges!

Curtis needs to drop that off tomorrow, which he is doing so in the morning.

Both of us;

We both eventually got home after having to contend with evening traffic too!

Once the traffic died down, we drove to Takapuna and got some items for dinner.

Kim made a sweet chilli pork stir fry which was great!

We chilled for the evening and got incredibly tired so decided it was time to sleep.

This time last year!

Poroporoaki!

– Mr & Mrs Hale

Auckland

Place 49 – Day 265: Auckland – Piha Beach (Again) & Sky Tower Dinner

Kim & Curtis Hale

Wee both woke up at 07:30 and Kim went to work. Curtis got up and had breakfast whilst waiting for his family to arrive.

Once his family arrived, Curtis got in the car and they were off for the day.

The plan for today was to go to Piha beach. This is the black beach that we have been to previously, but we wanted to show the family.

Once they got to the beach, it was pretty windy but there wasn’t really anyone there, which made for a good walk.

It was windy enough that the sand was being kicked up from the beach, which had an awesome affect!

They walked around the beach for a while and then went to look at the waves that Curtis knew crashed onto the rocks nearby.

After the beach, they went to the highest cafe in Auckland, which we had been to previously.

Curtis had the Moroccan Lamb Sandwich which was phenomenal!

They left the cafe and drove to Kim’s work to get the keys for Curtis’car from her and then Curtis was dropped off at the car.

Curtis drove home to get some evening clothes and then drove to the rental house.

At 16:20, Curtis drove to the garage that Kim’s car was in to pickup the keys and pay for required repairs. He then got some fuel and drove to pick Kim up from work.

After this, we can home and chilled for a moment before driving down to the sky tower in the city.

We first went to the observation deck from which we got a 360° view of the city.

After here, we went down a level to the cafe and had a drink whilst we waited.

We finished our drinks and went in the lift to the floor above where we were booked to have dinner, on a revolving floor! This allowed us to see the whole city at night which was beautiful.

The food was absolutely divine! For starter, we all shared some Kumara bread and had our own starters also. Curtis had King Prawns and Kim had duck breast.

Shortly after, it was the main! Curtis had venison and Kim had steak.

The venison was excellent and the steak was just OK.

For dessert, Curtis had a coffee cake and Kim had a chocolate orange dessert.

The food was excellent and the company even better!

Curtis’ family leave tomorrow evening, so it’s the last day!

This time last year!

Poroporoaki!

– Mr & Mrs Hale