Phase I – 10,000mi Road Trip in the Jetta

The first part of our trip started on August 2nd, 2103 and took a very complicated route to Andover, Maine (P). We had to make it to Calgary, Alberta (D) by August 8th for Lindsay to attend her sister’s Stagette/Bachelorette Party but did so the scenic route, going from Chugiak, Alaska (A) through the “Top of the World Highway” and then the inside route through British Columbia to finally end up in Calgary.

After Calgary we headed through the Kamloops/Kelowna, British Columbia (E) area en route to my first grad school tour/meetings at the Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon (G). After Corvallis we headed to Boise, Idaho (I) to compare schools by looking at Boise State University, which had been our plan B in case OSU fell through.

Once we finished up with the grad school visits we were on our own time, taking two weeks to travel from Boise to Regina, Saskatchewan (N) through Jackson, Wyoming (J) and a 5 day backpacking trip through Glacier National Park in northern Montana (M).

After Chelsea’s wedding in Regina we headed to Maine as quickly as we could to start preparing for our trip to New Zealand. On the tail end of our journey we spent a few days traveling the New England area, visiting Burlington, Vermont (O) and catching up with some long-lost friends between Burlington, Rhode Island and the Maine coast before finally parking the Jetta in Andover, 10,000 (+) miles later!

Phase II – New Zealand (Click the link to go to that story!)

All of these bullet point itinerary stops relate below the map are shown with a letter on the map and the write up below the map takes you to the story associated with the stop. Pretty fancy huh?!

(A) Our trip started on October 9th, 2014 and we spent the first three days recovering from jet lag since we are old and hanging out in Auckland

(B) From Auckland we spent 3 1/2 weeks WWOOFing at an organic produce farm on the Coromandel Pennisula (and don’t miss Part II of the story).

(C) After the farm we took a much needed surfing break in Raglan

(D) The trials and tribulations continued with two weeks of WWOOFing at an Organic Microbrewery

(E) Mid-November called for a five day float trip down the Whanganui River with pictures and everything!

(F) After drying ourselves off we went to the Watermill Pizzeria and Bakery for two more weeks of WWOOFing

(G) We had a few days to kill in Wellington… so Clay had a cultural experience

(H) Christmas and New Years was celebrated by working 75 hrs/week at Punga Cove Resort. See the full story in Part I, Part II and Part III

(I) All work and no play makes Lindsay and angry panda. We went wine tasting.

(J) Work was over and we took a little detour on our way to Auckland Airport

February 9th we had to fly to Canada for Lindsay’s sister’s wedding, here’s how we got back.

(K-O) The South Island means nature, and a lot of it. Three weeks in March were spent hiking and adventuring in our trusty Subaru Legacy Wagon

(P) With a few days to kill we hung out in Dunedin for some Fringe Festival and Highlander’s Rugby

(Q) March 21st, 2014 we left Mushu and New Zealand behind

Phase III – Georgia to Maine… 1 Step at a time

The grand finale… unless we win the lottery or someone rich dies and leaves us a bunch of money so we can continue traveling the world!

We’ll be starting our 2100 mile journey from Georgia to Maine in late April, planning to finish at the summit of Mt Katahdin, the northern terminus of the Appalachian trail, by September 30th. We are going to try to average 100 miles/week, which would be about 15 miles/day and one all-important “zero day” once per week.

Since it’s about the journey and not the destination we actually have a very flexible schedule with where we are staying and how long we plan on staying in town. There will be festivals along the way, friends from the military who have been scattered far and wide across the East Coast to see and steal a shower from their house and the decision that it’s better to stay in the tent than walk in the rain. For all of those reasons and more we will have to leave this part of the itinerary pretty loose… what’s the point in doing a thru hike on a schedule!

This is also the part that Hunter will rejoin us for. He’s going to be staying at his grandparents house (Clay’s Parents) in Maine while we’re in New Zealand and as long as he still remembers us he’ll be coming to Georgia to start the trail. We plan on sending him back to Maine after a month or two when the days start getting too hot because he really doesn’t perform well in the heat. Once we get back to Vermont the plan is to have his grandparents deliver him to us again and finish the trail once the temperatures drop.