Travel & Adventure Archives - A Girl and a Kiwi

January 25, 2020January 25, 2020

Top 10 Disney Pro Tips: Tips To Make Your Trip More Magical

To follow up on our recent Disney Travel post, I wanted to share our Top 10 Disney Pro Tips that will make your time at the most magical place on earth even better. We had a crash course from our own personal Disney Pro (my cousin Blake) before our trip – complete with a 2 part power point presentation and a quiz so you know he means business. Here is what we learned!

October 20, 2019January 25, 2020

6 Day Orlando Universal & Disney Vacation

I am so overdue on this post… but I couldn’t NOT share about our magical Disney vacation in Florida!! My parents took the family for a 6-day vacation to Orlando in April this year. We didn’t have a ton of time, but we PACKED it in! If you want to know how to fit in ALL the magic Orlando has to offer in a short time, this post is for you. Here’s what we got up to in our Orlando and Disney Vacation!

March 21, 2019March 21, 2019

13 Day North Island Itinerary: New Zealand

James and I have returned from another amazing trip to New Zealand’s north island. We are definitely feeling the jet leg this week, so I thought I’d put my feet up and recap our north island trip! We went the last week of February, and stayed through the first week of March, which meant it was nice and hot pretty much the whole time. This time of year, we had cooler mornings and evenings but full sunny days! It rained only on our first and last day – lucky us! Read on to see what we got up to cruising around New Zealand’s north island with family.

January 17, 2019January 17, 2019

Non-Traditional European Honeymoon

Super excited to have a guest writer on the blog today to share her honeymoon itinerary! My adventurous sister Allie is sharing her non-traditional honeymoon with you all! This really sounded like a trip of a lifetime! I’ll let her get started.

Hello! My name is Allie, and I am Brooke’s middle little sister. I am also the sister who helped get the girl and the kiwi together! Shortly after those two got together, Derek came into my life, and he was the best man at Brooke and James’ wedding. Derek and I were married on June 2, 2018, and as close as we are to Brooke and James, we chose not to bring them on our honeymoon. But I still wanted to share our amazing European honeymoon adventure with you!

January 7, 2019January 7, 2019

How We Save Money to Travel

One of the most common questions I get is “How do you afford to go to New Zealand every year?” I don’t have one really good answer for that question, I think it’s a combination of a lot of tools we use to help us save money for travel, and save money in general. I’ll give you our 5 ways we save money to fund our flights. Here’s how we do it.

December 22, 2018December 23, 2018

Mother-Daughter Weekend at Boyne Mountain Spa

I don’t love fall. That might be an unpopular opinion, I know. But I much prefer summer and winter. Though the leaves are really colorful, I don’t love all the rain and mud. For me, fall is just a countdown to winter. But recently my sisters, mom and I escaped the fall blues by going to Boyne Mountain Spa for a mother-daughters weekend. Here’s what we got up to on our relaxing weekend away at Boyne Mountain Spa!

November 10, 2018

Michigan Beer & Wine Tour: Traverse City & Suttons Bay

For the last several years my family and extended family have gone on a Michigan fall color, wine, beer and cider tour – or “wine tour” for short. Usually we try to go when the colors are at their “peak”, typically middle of October. We all pile into my Uncle’s motorhome and tour northern Michigan’s best wineries, cideries, and micro breweries, and enjoy the beautiful fall weather! This year we set off to Traverse City, Leelanau, Suttons Bay, and Bellaire. Here’s our wine tour itinerary! Continue reading “Michigan Beer & Wine Tour: Traverse City & Suttons Bay”

September 15, 2018November 7, 2018

What to Do Near Boyne City and Charlevoix

I’m such a big northern Michigan fan. There’s just so much beauty up there. Everything is spread out, and so much woods and spaces that are just untouched. Apart from our loved Gaylord, some of our favorite places are Boyne City and Charlevoix. Boyne City is at the base of Lake Charlevoix, about 40 min north east of Gaylord. Charlevoix is at the “top” of Lake Charlevoix, about an hour from Gaylord on the coast of Lake Michigan. Here we are going to highlight some of our favorite things to do and places to explore near these areas!

Continue reading “What to Do Near Boyne City and Charlevoix”

August 21, 2018

Top 3 Places to Ski In New Zealand

If you know us, you know that skiing and snowboarding are a huge part of our life. We both started to ski at the young age of 2, and our families took us skiing nearly every weekend in the winter. We met at a ski resort, where I was a ski instructor and James was training for the upcoming Vancouver Olympics in 2010. James was a professional snowboarder, and for years travelled the world chasing the winters and snowboarding at the best resorts and mountains in the world. If you ask him though, where his favorite place to ski or snowboard is, he will tell you New Zealand. Specifically, one mountain in New Zealand. Read on, and we will share our top three places to ski in New Zealand. Continue reading “Top 3 Places to Ski In New Zealand”

July 15, 2018January 24, 2019

Four Days in Colorado’s Mountains

James and I spent a week in Colorado this spring! After spending three days in Denver with family (go check out that post here!), we set off to the mountains for four days of exploring Colorado JUST THE TWO OF US! You guys, this was the first trip we had taken just the two of us since our honeymoon. THAT WAS OVER THREE YEARS AGO. So, needless to say, four days in the mountains were just what we needed. Here’s what we got up to in four days in Colorado in May.