CADENCE Week 21 – Taipei, Taiwan

Run – 12 miles

Ugh, humidity sucks.

This week was all about travel. We dropped off the van in Auckland, then spent the next 25 hours in airports. Once we were in Taipei we were too exhausted to do anything for two days. I might have gotten up the courage for a short run but humidity is my kryptonite. I easily overheat and I feel like I am dragging my body around, no matter how fast or slow I am going.

On the positive side, Taipei is a great city to run in, kind of… the streets, not a chance. The city knows this, so along all rivers, streams, and canals there biking or running paths. On the larger rivers there are big green spaces for all sorts of activities. On the path nearest to our hostel, about 400 meters away, there are basketball courts, a mini golf course, badminton courts, weight lifting machines, rollerskating rinks, and tons of flat paved sections for tai-chi, line dancing, martial arts, and ballroom dancing. All this along a 2.5 km section of river. While the rest of the city is busy and crowded, there is plenty of space to do anything you want.

So, aside from the personal feelings I have about running in the humidity (it just sucks) Taipei is a great city to run and work out in.

Later.

Week 21 – Auckland, New Zealand and Taipei, Taiwan

Changing Direction

Taiwan – Taipei – Night bus in the rain

After a month of comfort and familiarity in New Zealand, we started our journey through Asia by flying to Taiwan. We spent the first two days of this week returning the van and hanging out in Auckland. Then after 27 hours of traveling we arrived in Taipei exhausted from (1) the fast pace of our New Zealand leg, (2) trying to get a night’s sleep on the plane, (3) the heat and humidity of Taipei, (4) and the five hour time change. We gave ourselves two days to get our bearings before doing any serious sightseeing. Then we had two solid days of touring Taipei.

Taiwan is different in many ways, but the most surprising to us is the popularity of 7-11 stores. Not only are they everywhere, you can do nearly anything at them. You can pick up train tickets you bought online, or just buy them at the 7-11. You can pay your bills. You can use the microwave or hot water to make meals. You can make copies or print. You can wire money to another 7-11 location. Oh, and obviously you can buy soda and snacks.

Adventures in New Zealand

A Whirlwind Adventure

We spent 30 days in New Zealand, September 21st to October 20th. Now, 30 days sounds like a long time, especially for such a tiny country, but it wasn’t nearly enough. We would have been more comfortable with six weeks and would have preferred two months. Before arriving, we decided that more than a month would be too tough on the budget, so we would stick to that.  In the end, it was still the right decision, but we will need to take another trip to New Zealand in the future.

To get an idea of the size and population density of New Zealand, I’m going to steal a line from Nadine, whom we visited in Wellington: New Zealand is the population of Brooklyn, NY spread out over land the size of California. That’s 4.5 million people and 1.5 million of them live in Auckland, leaving the rest of the country sparsely populated. As a result, there aren’t many roads outside the big cities with more than two lanes (one each direction). They felt like side roads or scenic routes instead main roads. They also have lots of one lane bridges, so you have to wait for oncoming traffic to clear the bridge first.

In some ways our time in New Zealand was easier than other countries. For one, it’s the only English speaking country that we plan to visit, so we took full advantage by renting the van. However, roadtripping is a completely different kind of travel than backpacking and it took us awhile to get our wheels under us. We didn’t plan ahead for New Zealand nearly as much as we had planned for other countries (presumably because we thought it would be so much easier to travel through). Due to that lack of planning, we had to plan on a daily basis and ended up trying to see too much. We should have planned ahead, so we could narrow down our itinerary. We felt pressured to reach a new location every day, but also were hesitant to stop too much along the way for fear that we wouldn’t get a campsite, or couldn’t get to our next location.

Other than driving on the left, our time in New Zealand felt a bit like a road trip in the Pacific Northwest: English speaking, beautiful scenery, good food, and good beer. All in all, we really loved New Zealand and can’t wait to go back.

Colors of New Zealand

New Zealand – Wellington – Te Papa Museum – Weta Workshop Model in Gallipoli exhibit

New Zealand – Wai-O-Tapu – Champagne Pool

New Zealand – Wai-O-Tapu – Pool near Artists Palet

New Zealand – The Bay of Islands – Bottlenose Dolphins

New Zealand – Cape Reigna

New Zealand – Wanaka Lake

New Zealand – Goat Island – The purple side of the van

A collection of some of our favorite photos from New Zealand, one for each color of the rainbow. Click on the first photo to view a slideshow. Check out our Flickr page to see all our photos from New Zealand. Also, check out our photo collections by color.

BLACK & WHITE

 

New Zealand – Waitomo Caves – Glow worms!

New Zealand – Franz Josef Glacier

CADENCE Week 20 – Picton and the Nth Island, New Zealand

Run – 22 miles

A week of contrasts.

I got in three runs this week, each completely different from the rest. I started out in Picton running along the Queen Charlotte Sound. There is a great system of hiking and mountain biking trails on the outskirts of Picton. I had a great time running these single track trails, zooming downhill and puffing uphill. I haven’t run so slow or had so much fun in a while.

New Zealand – Inter Island Ferry

After we crossed the Cook Strait back to Wellington we saw a ton of people biking and running home after work. It was so cool to see people running with huge backpacks along the water. I was inspired to have a hard run. So I headed down a long hill and ran along the water. Unfortunately the best route to the suburbs is not the prettiest run. I only saw commuters in cars, bikes and running, and no sights. To top it off, since I was running hard I sucked in a ton of car fumes and had heart burn for the rest of the day. Not my favorite run, but good on the Wellies.

New Zealand – Wellington

Lastly we stopped in the cute beachside resort town of Mt. Maunganui. The town is basically one big beach, the Mount (as they call the mountain) was once an island but sand connected it to the mainland. I ran around the Mount and down along the beach. It was really windy but I didn’t care, it was so nice and scenic. Our campsite was right on the beach and there was a constant stream of runners and hikers all weekend.

New Zealand – Mt Maunganui

I had heard that Kiwis were an active bunch and I have definitely seen that this week. It was really easy to go out and run after seeing all the people doing the same. NZ you rock. I hope Taiwan is as great.

Later.