Day Trip around Koh Samui

Had a great 1/2 day trip around Koh Samui with the girlfriends & wives of the other sailors. We saw alot in 1/2 a day and I'm really glad that I got a chance to see outside of Chaweng.


The first photo is of several shrines setup next to a view point. I've seen 1 or 2 shrines that are usually set up outside of businesses, but I have never seen this many in one place. They were beautiful.


After stopping at the view point we headed to 2 waterfalls. They were weak. I don't know if it was their dry season or what, but it wasn't even worth the 10 min hike down to them to see.


Next was the Aquarium. The fish were nice to see and they had big sea turtles that you could feed lettuce to for 50 baht. My favorite part of the Aquarium wasn't actually the aquarium, it was the animals outside in the cages; Elephants, Tigers and Monkeys. Both the elephants and tigers had a baby that was a treat to see.


At this point we had really worked up an appetite and were ready for lunch. One of the woman suggested we eat at "The Cliff" which was advertised in one of the brochures we had. I was pleasantly surprised. The view was incredible (taken of the "elephant rock" below) and the food was quite good. They served complimentary bruschetta which was toasted perfectly and not too garlicky. I had a coconut shake and a seared tuna salad, both of which I really enjoyed.


Another great day in Koh Samui.

Last Leg of the Trip : Takapuna NZ

Only a month left before returning to the States. Oskar and I are in the last leg of our AUS/NZ trip, which lands us in Takapuna, a northern suburb located 20 minutes north of Auckland.

The first week here we had off to get settled in at our apartment and take some daytrips around the north island. The south island would have been nice to do, but we would have had to of flown, which was out.

I've put in some pictures below of; Matakana, )an 1.5 hour drive north east of Auckland), Goat Island (on the east coast north of Matakana), Lake Taupo (3 hours south of Auckland in the center of the island), Lake Rotorua (about 1.5 hours east of Lake Taupo), and finally Raglan ( a surf beach on the west coast). It was a great week off and we got alot of sights in.


Picture 1: This is the view of Downtown Auckland from our apartment building in Takapuna. To the right is The LakeHouse Art Center, where I currently have an exhibit up.


Picture 2: Matakana Market on the weekends. I had some incredible blueberry icecream at one of the shops.


Picture 3: Goat Island with volcanic black sand beaches and tropical fishes. A popular beach to go snorkeling at.


Picture 4: Lake Taupo. Freezing cold fresh water that runs down from the surrounding melting snowcapped mountains.


Picture 5: Sunset at Lake Rotorua. Very warm water that is surrounded by active, steaming, bubbling, geisers.


Picture 6: And finally, one of my favorite beach towns ever Raglan. Turquise water, mountians, beautiful Samoan people and a layed back surfer atmosphere.