December 26, 2010 - January 2, 2011

December 26th, Liora and I embarked on a seven day tour around the North Island. Starting here in Wellington, we drove a relocation car (free 24 hour rental, as long as you take it one way to a specific city) the eight hours up to Auckland. On the way, we stopped for a break at the stunning Lake Taupo and had a nice little stop in Rotorua. See pics below. From Auckland, we took our second rental car and drove all over the northeast portion of New Zealand's North Island. Piha, Mangawhai, Whangarei, Te Puke, Tauranga, Whangamata, Coromandel and then back down to Auckland to catch a ride back to Wellington with our neighbors.



During the seven days, we slept in our car, pitched our tent at the epic CoroGold New Year's Eve music festival, rented a room at a sketchy airport motel, slept in a 10 person backpacker dorm & stayed at the childhood home of one of Liora's Kiwi friends. Along the way, we stopped at McDonald's for free wifi & directions, InfoCenters to inquire about the "must see"s of each town and generally got out of the car at any point where the view was spectacular or there was a good place to catch a tan while playing Scrabble. Both of us came home calling it "the best" road trip ever. We left Wellington with no real plans set in place, no hotel reservations, no tickets to CoroGold, no idea how the week would develop. Ironically, even if we had sat down with travel books, maps and a calendar and nailed down a specific itinerary before we left, we couldn't have planned it better ourselves.



Going with the flow is the best way to let things happen and is one thing that I've become seriously good at. As long as you're armed with the essentials (in our case: tent, sleeping bag, pillows, Scrabble & banana bread) and willing to be flexible and let things come your way as the plan unfolds, very little can go wrong. In my opinion, it can be the best way to experience life. If we had made reservations for a hotel, we never would have randomly stopped in Hamilton and watched drunk casino patrons sing karaoke for over an hour. If we hadn't randomly walked into the surf shop in Whitianga, we might not have found CoroGold tickets for sale. If we had purchased a flight back home to Wellington, we would have missed out on the brie, roast beef and pesto sandwiches that our neighbors/drivers provided for lunch. If we hadn't decided to take Adrian up on his random invitation to stay with his parents in Te Puke, we wouldn't have taken tequila shots with Pedro.

The best trips are full of adventure and the best adventures are determined by random chances and random chances can only enter into the equation if you're open to adventure.

Happy 2011!