Category: Uncategorized

  • Australia Part 5: Tropical North Queensland

    Stepping off the plane at Cairns, it was immediately obvious that our short 2-hour flight had taken us from the desert to the lush tropical rainforest. The air felt moist, the birdsong was immediate, the greenery popped, and the air smelled earthy and wild. Welcome to Tropical North Queensland! Due to our flight delays, it…

  • Australia Part 4: Wicked Outback Adventure

    Landing in Alice Springs (Central Australia), the next portion of our trip would be camping in rooftop tents in the Red Centre atop a 4×4 Wicked Desert Sands truck. We had expected dry deserts and loose red dust, but found ourselves in a situation the area has not seen since 1988 – post heavy rains…

  • Australia Part 3: Melbourne to Adelaide JUCY Roadtrip

    We are quite excited to be sharing the camping portion of this Australian adventure with the Whitacre family, our Alaskan neighbors, as we drive two “Jucy” campervans from Melbourne to Adelaide, including the Great Ocean Road. There is nothing subtle about two brilliant green Jucy vans, each packed with four of us juggling and shuffling…

  • Australia Part 2: Tasmania

    After our time in Sydney, we hopped a Quantas flight to Hobart, Tasmania. Our time in Tasmania was quite the mix, as we loved the scenery, pace, wildlife, and people – but were in and out of various hospitals when Chris’ mom developed complications from COVID. I will start with the highlights, and finish with…

  • Australia Part 1: Sydney

    SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA: February 14-22, 2026 Terikah on the hard in the Marsden Cove boatyard, we wished her well and drove to Auckland where we caught the 3-hour flight to Australia. We are lucky to have 2 months to explore Australia and this time is being divided into five regions: Sydney, Tasmania, the Great Ocean Road,…

  • New Zealand: Explorations & Boat Haul Out

    I’m writing this perched high in the air, looking out at cow fields, with our car parked under the boat. Terikah is hauled out at Marsden Cove for some much-needed love. But before we found ourselves here, we had a couple more weeks to explore the surrounding waters. Back at Waiheke Marina, we were ready…

  • Terikah Tours with Little T

    We are so excited to have Uncle Travis (the famous Little T) and his partner Sarah from Fairbanks here with us for a couple weeks on board Terikah. Almost not making it out due to cold temperatures in Fairbanks, by the time they landed in Auckland they had swung from minus 50 degrees F in…

  • Hauraki Horizons: Exploring Hauraki Gulf (Tikapa Moana)

    Looking at the big weather coming up, we decided to anchor in well-protected Bon Accord Harbour of Kawau Island, arriving late and anchoring (and re-anchoring) for the upcoming storm. We took a day to explore the trails out of Schoolhouse Bay to the Mansion House and Old Coppermine.  Sir George Grey developed the Mansion House…

  • Bay of Islands & Northland Musings

    Me te titiro whanui, kia koa (Look deeply and learn) Ki nga taonga kei mua i a koe (From your surroundings) Back out on the water in Terikah, two months to explore before our haul-out, we hope to explore as a family, seeing what Aotearoa can teach us along the way. Our first stop, only…

  • Aotearoa Arrival: Opua Marina, Northland

    Tied up to the Opua, Aotearoa (New Zealand) Q-dock at 4:20pm, just in time for the Customs and Biosecurity to inform us that we were the first on their list for the next day. In some ways this was a relief – nothing to do but celebrate our arrival as a family with fresh tuna…