We picked up our van in Christchurch, had lunch in a grocery store parking lot and then drove straight for Kaikoura. We took a hike along the Kaikoura Peninsula. It was my kind of hike - great views, very little exertion! ;)

We spent the first few days of our trip in Wellington. It was good to spend a few days in a real bed after the Christmas craziness at school and then our hectic flights. We slept a lot during our time in Wellington, but it was desperately needed. However, we still had plenty of time to go out an explore. Wellington is such a hip little place. It's much smaller than our hometown of Winnipeg, but it is just bursting with cool restaurants, shops, museums etc etc. We were so impressed! Also, the beautiful weather was nice too!

Notes:
- We went to a lot of different restaurants, but our favourite was probably Ombra on Cuba Street. It had amazing ambiance and delicious food!
- We found a deal on Agoda for our accommodations (Gilmer Apartments). It was a great location, super comfy bed, and cheap laundry (I was in heaven using a dryer for the first time in months!)
- I'm not really sure why, but I wasn't super inclined to pick up the DSLR on this trip. So, most of these photos (and photos in the following posts) are taken by Mike but edited by me!

Nine days ago, we got home from perhaps our best trip yet. We spent two weeks driving around, hiking, wandering, and photographing New Zealand. It is such a special place. The trip was a lot more relaxed and laid back than past trips which was exactly what we needed. Lots and lots of photos to come. Here are a few instax to start.

Korean thanksgiving (Chuseok - 추석) fell in September this year and we got a whole week off. Since we were a bit broke from our summer travels, we decided to just rent a car and head up to Seoraksan National Park for a few days. So glad we did! Our life here in South Korea can start to feel very normal and at times monotonous (like life anywhere can) so it's nice to go out and do things like this to remind ourselves - hey! We're living in Asia!

The first day we were there we didn't exert ourselves too hard. We took the cable car up the mountain and then did a quick little walk up to the Gwongeumseong lookout. I felt a little guilty getting such an amazing view after doing so little work but we made up for that the next day! :)  

 
This is a quick little post just to wrap up our summer travels. We ended with a bang in Pulau Weh, an island off the coast of Sumatra. Two things of importance about the days spent there:

a) We stayed at my absolute favourite accommodations we've ever stayed at, Freddie's Santai Sabang.  No, it was not glitzy or anything like that. It was simply run by one of the nicest men I have ever met! Freddie (the owner) makes an amazing, elaborate feast every evening for his guests (you have to pay for it but totally worth the money). Freddie also went above and beyond with helping us buy tickets to the island since the Indonesian Airlines were rejecting our North American credit card. And the cottages and beach front are also just so beautiful. What a place!

b) We all got our PADI (scuba diving) certification out there. I'm totally an anxious person and not super athletic so it was honestly very tough for me and very nerve wracking. Crazy emotions - one morning I broke down and cried, another day I had a little panic episode during a skills test and then another night I couldn't sleep at all because I was so worried about our skills tests. But I did it! I still actually get a little anxious thinking about scuba diving again, so clearly I'm not a natural or a lifer, but I'm still so happy I did it.

Anyways, that's it for Indonesia. Next up on the blog will be some photos from when we went to Seoraksan National Park here in South Korea!

Mid afternoon frolicking, sunset swims, and morning swims when the lake was like glass. Dang, that was a good time.

Lake Toba is the largest volcanic lake in the world and the largest fresh water lake in South East Asia. As I mentioned in the previous post, we drove to Parapat and then took the ferry to Samosir island which is right in the middle of the lake. Lake Toba apparently used to be the place to go to (like a full moon rager in Thailand) but tourism has definitely taken a nose dive and it was extremely quiet. But amazing! I don't know if I've ever been somewhere so relaxing and chill. The lake was beautiful (more of that in the next post) and the food was ah-mazing. And we stayed got a little room right on the lake for $8.50*!

We rented a scooter one day and went a bit more inland. We didn't make it up to the hot springs but still got to poke around a bit. The Batak people of the area are quite well know for their weaving so we hunted around until we found a beautiful blanket to take back with us. Apparently it is fifty years old and used to be used to carry around babies. :) We got it dry cleaned once we came home and I couldn't be happier with it! I think it's my favourite thing we've bought from our travels. (Here's a picture of it!)

*Romlan's Guesthouse. I highly recommend it!