What the heck are we doing in LA for a week???

Let me tell you.

Cam is working at a private practice in Pasadena, essentially as a contract doctor. The practice is called "moonlighting" where you pick up shifts at practices that are short on doctors or have partners who want to take some time off. This is a great way for Cam to keep her hard-earned skills sharp during the trip, broaden her network, and earn some extra cash.

Jon is being the domestic partner at home. I won't bore you with what that actually entails, but Jon appears to love it. He (or was it his beard?) played in a poker tournament yesterday at The Commerce and got fourth place, so Jon was able to be a net contributor to the travel budget during this short time at home.

We've been able to see a few friends, dry out our stinky wetsuits after New Zealand, and keep the planning gears moving for the rest of the trip.

We leave for Europe this weekend. Can't wait to see Caroline, Aurel, Jesse, Angela, and Jon's parents in Europe!!

A few photos from our time in Fiji

Here are a few photos from our Namotu surf trip in July. Couldn't post to the blog any sooner because we didn't have a CD drive on the trip, and wouldn't have had fast enough internet for all these images anyways. Many of these were already posted on Facebook, but we are going for maximum sharing and not worrying as much about redundancy.

We had some really nice surf conditions for about a week (in the middle of the two week trip).

 The sunsets were really strutting their stuff

 No wind and big swells from a long ways away = happiness

 Cambria on a big one. The bottom of her wave is obstructed by the wave in front of her. I love this shot, because it shows how much speed Cam gets on these waves.

 Here's Jon making his way over to say "bonjour" to Aurel

 Cam is the master shell hunter

 We had a streak of about 5 days in a row of ridiculous sunsets

 When the sun goes down at 6pm, we get some technicolor light on the island

 A nice head high wave at Swimming Pools that we shared.

 Cam working the crowd

 Jon on a fun one

 The invisible surfboard!

 Cam making the section

 The spanish mackerel Jon speared at Lefts. Fed the island for lunch!

 Warm sunset light while surfing Swimming Pools was magical.

 We had a classic session at Lefts with only about 5 people out total, and LOTS of waves.

 Jon's involuntary facial expression says "STOKED!!"

 Cam with a smooth cutback at Lefts

 Cam loves to milk the wave all the way in to the shallow, fast inside section.

 Here's my dad on a nice one at Swimming Pools

 The sunsets in the South Pacific. Is there anything better?

 Yes. Sunsets in the South Pacific with friends and family, after a long day of surfing!

 This is most definitely not store-bought fish. Damo, the island's incredible fisherman and spearfishing master, was keeping us stocked with the freshest, tastiest Wahoo you can imagine.

 Once a week we have Fijian music, Fijian food, and drink lots of kava. Here's Aurel enjoying his 5th shell, with Jon providing encouragement. Cam's grimace is due to a very, very stinky dog just outside the frame.

 The first few days of the trip were kiting days... nice, steady 22 knot wind and head high swell to play in out at Lefts. Here's Jon at the start of a 3 hour kite session.

 Namotu is small. How small? Well, that's it right there. It can fit about 25 guests and about 20 staff. It takes 5 minutes to walk around the island. It is about an 800 meter swim if you want to circumnavigate at high tide.

 Jon and Cam love Namotu for the surf and the diving, but the best part is being with family!

 Cam is getting her new (much) shorter board dialed in. Perfect position for a long, clean ride at Lefts.

Attention! We are back in LA!

We are here for 10 days. Blog posts will be suspended until we arrive in France on 2 Sept. We hope our readers will understand... We are sparing you the joys of LA, a city you would rather hate anyways.

After 5 weeks away from home...

Marriage is in tact and better than ever!

If the tandem bike is "the marriage counselor" the camper van is the "marriage laboratory" where experiments in close quarters living are ongoing and always "interesting." 

This photo don't lie!!!

I would strongly recommend 3 weeks in a campervan to any married couple wanting to explore and expand their relationship.

Especially if it requires driving on the "wrong" side of the road.

This is what Jon looked like as he sped down the road in the campervan:

"Hey, is that a store that will resupply our precious, but never quite enough, black licorice stash??!!!"

Meanwhile, this is what Cam looked like:

<insert photo of Cam bracing for dear life>

Last Day in NZ

Today is our last full day in NZ. 

Yesterday, we explored a remote surf spot around the corner from Raglan, and ended up scoring great waves in the afternoon back at our home break of Manu Bay.

After our standard morning check of Manu Bay, we decided to take the campervan on a gravel road adventure to check on a wave magnet spot called Ruapuke. It is about a half hour drive south of Raglan, and the drive is spectacular. Imagine the road to Hana, but with nobody on it (we passed 2 cars in an hour of driving), no pavement, and lots of surf to see.

Here's what the road looks like:

Another shot of the road to Ruapuke:

About half way there, we found a little viewing platform that looks out over a deep gorge. 

Looking north from the platform. The Raglan points are around the point to the right. The gorge is a more dramatic (and empty) version of Kualoa Ranch on Oahu.

Your intrepid travelers on the platform

Trying to capture the steepness of the gorge. The platform is perched right over it. Look off the edge and it is straight down, probably 500 feet.

Our beloved campervan off in the distance, as seen from the platform

And here is the surf spot, Ruapuke

A pretty standard beach break with offshore winds and nobody out. We watched it for a while then decided not to go out; it was a bit disorganized. With a world class point break walking distance from your campsite your standards get quite high.

When we got back to Raglan, the surf got better and, counterintuitively, the crowds got thinner. Cam and I pinched ourselves in disbelief, then sprinted into the water and found that we were the ONLY ONES OUT at Manu Bay, with a light offshore breeze and consistent, shreddable head high waves coming through. The universe can't stay out of whack like that for very long so as made the spot look good, about 6 other people joined us. We got it to ourselves for 45 minutes and were on a constant catch a wave, paddle out, rotation. Stooooked!!!

Hoping to get a repeat of that today...

Staying in Raglan for the rest of the trip

We're throwing in the towel. Feeling road weary from a week of driving our mobile home on the wrong side of the road. Our route around the North Island resembles one of those spider webs made by a spider on drugs (if you don't get the reference, Google 'spider webs cocaine' or 'spider webs marijuana' and you'll see the images from the experiment we all wish we'd thought of for our science fair project). All over the place. The weather and surf look iffy at the other potential spots, and lots of road time would be required. And we've found a great little hippy campsite Eco retreat hostel thing here in Raglan. Different spot than our last one. Still walking distance to Manu Bay. So, we are staying put.

Here are some shots of this hippy lodge we are calling home for our last week in NZ:

View from our campervan, looking at one of the several veggie gardens you can pick from for meals in the communal kitchen.

Looking out from the communal kitchen towards the pizza oven and the little 2 person rooms that are made out of cut-in-half train cars.

Here is a long train car that has a few rooms in it.

Here is a killer little house you can rent that overlooks the bay

Are there any places like this in Malibu, Big Sur, or Maui? If not, it seems like a fun business to run.

As you can see the sky has gotten blue again, after a 36 hour bout of relentless rain. The surf is decent and we are shaking from surf withdrawals, so we're heading out...

Special guest blogger: Jon's beard, part 2

Buon giorno, Jon's beard here, back for another day of reporting only the facts.

Today, I'll keep it brief. The topic: a visual tour of the camper van that Jon and Cam call home.

The campervan is basically a Transformer. A robot in disguise.

It has three main formats:

1. Traveling format

2. Eating/cribbage format

3. Sleeping format

Here she is in traveling format. Note the surfboards fit nicely in the "hallway."

Here she is in eating/cribbage format. Cam is taking a short break from kicking Jon's ass in cribbage. Note the hanging coffee sock next to the map, as well as the Bluetooth speaker that turns the iPhone into a mobile stereo. If this beard had to pack only three things on a camping trip, it would be 1. Coffee sock 2. Bluetooth speaker 3. A Tom Robbins book

Here's Jon worshipping the coffee sock.

And finally, here is our campervan in sleep format. The bed is behind the map and cribbage table and folds down nice and level. Juuuust the right level of firmness.

Seconds after this photo was taken Cambria lifted the curtains and blinded her husband with the morning sun.

She is just now slowing down on the giggling, and Jon can just now see the keypad on the iPhone.

Skunked in Taranaki

Taranaki is a beautiful coastline just west of Mount Taranaki. Here is snow capped Mt Taranaki peeking out from the clouds:

The bucolic, sleepy peninsula is home to "surf highway 45," so named due to its dense population of surf spots. It gets compared to Oahu's North Shore a lot, not because it gets huge like the North Shore, but because every little road leading to the ocean seems to have at least one surf spot on it.

We did not find surf.

We saw the potential, in spots like Stent Road and Fitzroy Beach, but it was super windy storm surf across the whole peninsula. Here's Jon with his bottom lip out as he compares what the surf guide says about Stent Road and what the place actually delivered (in the background you can see it gets an F):

It has been a week of searching for surf and coming up empty handed. Lots of beautiful scenery, some nice wines, friendly people etc etc, but we are starting to get surf starved. 

So Jon pulled the emergency parachute, and directed the campervan at Raglan and floored it. 

There is supposed to be fresh swell hitting Raglan, we know the spot, and it has some nice protection from the wind, which is what was killing the Taranaki surf. So we sacrificed adventure for a higher probability of getting in the water. Will let you know how it goes...

Wine Tasting in Hawke's Bay

The view of Cape Kidnappers from our campervan window: no surf. A good day to taste the local grape juice.

As our dear readers know well, wine needs accompaniment if one is going to day-drink. So we sought out bread and cheese. Here is the little bakery in Havelock North where we preemptively stocked up on baguettes. One step inside and we knew it would be good.

We didn't go into our Hawke's Bay wine tastings totally blind. Our friend Jason, who runs the Meteor Winery in Napa, passed on a very nice list of recommended places to visit. So the first two wineries were based on Jason's recs. When someone in the wine business points you in a certain direction, you listen. We're glad we did.

First stop was the Te Mata winery. 

We ended up getting a very young 2013(!) Gamay Noir which is their version of a Beaujolais. Incredibly drinkable and smooth. And cheap! Sorry guys, you can only buy it at the winery.

One thing you'll see in New Zealand that you probably won't see in Napa- sheep in the vineyard. I thought I tasted notes of mutton along with those tannins...

Next we headed over to Craggy Range for a tasting and lunch. Jason said the restaurant was excellent, and he was right on. Many of the wineries here have their own restaurants, and this one was great. The wines were delicious too. The Syrah was top notch and the Bordeaux blend was smooth and destined for pasta coupling (say, tomorrow night?).

Here we are tasting at Craggy Range

Providing a nice backdrop to the winery is Te Mata peak. 

The girl working the tasting room at Craggy Range was a surfer and was stoked on our surf mission around NZ. So she gave us a few local tips, including some beachfront wineries in Hawke's Bay we should check out. That's where we headed next.

Here is Cam tasting some of the tasty wines at Elephant Hill

The rose was niiiiiice, right Cam?

We asked the tasting hostess helper pourer lady which wineries she liked and she told us about a winery that also did cheese tastings. Sign me up. The winery, Sileni, was on the other side of town, but we had nothing else to do so we headed over.

We ended up buying a Merlot-Cab Franc blend at Sileni, under their "Redmetal" label. And we got some stinky Brie from the South Island.

We called it a day after four wineries, and healthiness had already lost the battle to gluttony, so we headed to the best ice cream shop in town. Yes, it was good. Cam's passion fruit was deeeelish.

Then we found our FREE campsite on the beach and threw her in park.

Here's what the table in front of me (in the campervan) looks like as I am pecking out this blog. Baguette, stinky brie cheese, and wine. A complete meal.

Tomorrow we head west towards Taranaki and "surf highway 45." Magic Seaweed (our reliable crystal ball for swell forecasting) is calling for a five star swell at Stent Road on Friday (day after tomorrow). So tomorrow we will drive ~5 hours and establish an ambush position for the surf.

Over and out.