Sailing Yacht Coco
The excellent adventures of Alex & Jac
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Gabby is home for a visit. Wicked. We had her shipped from the UK back to New Zealand late last year and she arrived in Auckland ready for summer. Getting her back to Queenstown at the other end of the country deserved a road trip (of course) that needed to be written up – so here’s the story of the trip south… We flew to Auckland from Queenstown late in December and… Read More
It’s time to start planning again. Watched a Rick Stein show on Croatia, Montenegro, Albania and Northern Greece. It looks good. Great people, food looks spectacular; it smells like an adventure in the making. And it’s heading in the right direction. I feel a plan coming on, a cunning plan indeed. In the interim, there’s been a couple of adventures to keep the soul fed back home; the Land Rover Discovery (the… Read More
Five months ago we had our best idea ever. Get a Landrover Defender 110 expedition truck built and knock off some classic adventures over the next couple of years. Phase one is done and 12,300 kilometres (that’s further than driving from New Zealand to Los Angeles) and 10 countries later, we are heading home to plan the next leg. We’ve left Gabby with the lads at Nene Overland at her birthplace in… Read More
Scotland’s answer to America’s Route 66, the North Coast 500 has been named among the top six road coastal road trips in the world. Apparently set up by Prince Charles (bless) for those roadie enthusiasts wanting to take in some of the most scenic parts of the country. It truely is a stunning route, running 500 miles from Inverness, to the Kyle of Lochalsh on the West Coast, via the rugged north… Read More
Islay, heaven on earth for whiskey aficionados. Home to a handful of the worlds most famous distilleries. The smell of peat smoke hangs in the air as they craft some of the finest wee drams on the planet. We picked up some crackers for our growing collection. I’m not sure how we are going to smuggle the contraband back into New Zealand! The people are fabulous, the food is delicious (crab and… Read More
Good grief, after a 10 day journey with a flight from London to Reykjavik, an 800km drive up to Seydisfjordur to catch the ferry to Demark, 3 days on the ferry with a quick stop in the Faroe Islands, 1,000km down to Amsterdam, an overnight ferry to Newcastle, and 300km’s drive north, we’ve arrived in Scotland! The irony is that it’s a 2 hour flight from Iceland to Glasgow… Haggis and a… Read More
Sicily, home to some 5m Italians. Relaxed mix of Mediterranean Greek / Aribic feel and amazing seafood; you are a welcome respite from the rainy days of Iceland! It’s a cultural lunch to be back in Italy. Crap trip here, thanks Alitalia for the unscheduled stay in a shitty hotel in Rome. “You will be our guests for the night” was not what we needed to hear from the transit desk after… Read More
After 3 weeks in Iceland and nearly 7000km of driving, we’ve left Gabby at the airport in Keflavik (hope she’ll be ok!) and we are flying to Sicily for 10 days of downtime with the kids before they go back to New Zealand. It’s been a full-on trip with non stop moving and I think everyone is a bit buggered… Here are my thoughts on Iceland: Iceland is spectacular – put it… Read More
Vatnajökull; the largest ice field in Europe covering an area of 8,400 square km with an average ice thickness of more than 3,000 feet. If it melted, half the world would have pretty wet feet (according to some dude I met). Anyway, it’s big, really big. Pretty awesome to drive 200 kms around the south coast and see non stop glaciers spilling off the ice cap. I figure these United States Navy… Read More
If I was ever going to make a movie about aliens, hobbits or any elfin like creature, the south central highlands of Iceland would be my set. It’s totally stunning. Volcanic, steaming, raw, lava fields. And contrast in the landscape like I’ve never seen before. It’s a cinematographer’s dream come true. Peter Jackson picked the wrong country me thinks. We spent a couple of days in a hut at Landmannalaugar (try and… Read More
Reykjavík, the only real city in Iceland; home to two thirds of the population. It’s an eclectic mix of old and new reflecting the rapid growth in tourism that the country is struggling to manage. The city has an undercurrent of young rebellion with late nights, fuelled by drugs and booze that flows like their waterfalls. Whale meat features on the menu in the slick and eye wateringly expensive restaurants – and… Read More
After leaving the stunning central highlands and a swim in an active volcanic crater(!), heading to some of the more remote areas in the northern fjords bought a new landscape with bumpy roads, deserted fishing villages and another amazing night of the northern lights. As it turns out, seeing the elusive lights is not as straight forward as one might think, it’s always freaking cloudy here! So we are lucky it would… Read More
There are 3 types of roads in Iceland. The red roads: these are the main highways. Sealed. The yellow roads: theses can be sealed or not, but generally drivable. Then there are the white roads. To be clear, I use the term “road” loosely, very loosely. In true Icelandic style, half of these roads are not even marked on the map. They are goat tracks at best. So when my navigator (aka… Read More
Not much more to say. This just sums up the last couple of days perfectly…
Yep, it’s confirmed. They do actually shoot reindeer in Iceland. Approx 6,000 total population and they nail around 1300 of them every year (bring on the Blitzen Burger). I met a guy who had just contributed to this “population control”. And yes, for the record, I have tried it. The sensitive side of me would suggest to you that I am appalled with this abuse of Santa’s little sleigh pullers. But I’m… Read More
Who would have thought. Second night in Iceland and we get treated to the Northern Lights. What an experience. They move and wander across the sky like celestial snakes. We didn’t expect to see them on the Northeast coast so the 1am wandering was worth missing sleep for.
Wow. I thought New Zealand owned raw natural beauty. Move over. Iceland is spectacular. Awesome fiords, incredible waterfalls, alien like highlands, ruggered mountains, colours that change by the minute and a coastline that would make a Viking turn in his grave. Wrap this up with some moody and very unpredictable weather and you end up with an island that takes your breath away. And we are only two days in. Landed at… Read More
We made the boat! It’s great to be here after all the planning and organisation; plus a fair bit of travel. One day in, half way to the Faroe Islands, just off the coast of the Shetland Islands. We can actually get the Landie off when we arrive at the Faroe’s around 5am tomorrow and we’ll have about 6 hours to have a quick look around before we re-board and continue to… Read More
4 days in London, a trip to Maidenhead to inspect and sign over the Land Rover (Gabriella!), shopping forced upon us by the kids (relief medication applied in local pubs), a couple of nice runs around the city – but now it’s time to leave. London has been experiencing a “heatwave” and we all know that just makes the place smell, especially the tubes… Perhaps I’m getting old but I think London… Read More
I’m in love with another woman… Now that is a cool Land Rover! Two weeks to go until collection date. The list of things to get done seems to be getting longer? We are all super excited about the trip and can’t wait to get on that plane. We feel a bit like kids on Christmas Eve – oh, don’t they eat reindeer in Iceland? Best we don’t tell the kids they’ll be… Read More
Sailing Yacht Coco 