New Zealand and Raja Ampat

December 2023 - January 2024

A trip with Adrienne to New Zealand for hiking and to Raja Ampat for scuba diving, with with stops in Sydney, Jakarta, and Taipei

Guam Map Palau Map Oahu Map

We started out with a long flight to Auckland, and spent a few days in the city before exploring the North Island for a couple of weeks. We took a boat ride out to Tiri Tiri Matangi, a bird sanctuary. We did a bunch of hiking in Whangarei, Rotorua, and Tongariro National Park.

We flew out of Auckland to Sydney, where we spent just over a day, poking around the Botanical Gardens and doing more walking.

Then it was off to Indonesia. We flew to Jakarta, spent the night at an airport hotel (highly recommended over trying to stay in the city proper), and then flew to Sorong to set off on a liveaboard dive boat for ten days. We did a lot of great diving. The coral is some of the best I've seen, and there was a profusion of fish. We got off the boat, spent a day drying out in Sorong, and then flew back to Jakarta for a few days of great food.

Our flight home was routed through Taipei, and we decided to stay there for a few days. We enjoyed a functional transit system, had many boba teas, went on a guided birding trip, and failed to see the world's most famous jade cabbage (it was on loan to another museum).