Miyajima is a small island, just over half an hour by train plus a ten minute ferry ride away from Hiroshima. It’s home to the famous “floating gate”, several shrines and temples (Daisho-in must be one of the most beautiful temples we’ve seen so far, the location on the foot of the mountain, and so many little gems to discover, it’s just adorable) and Mount Misen, which is great hiking terrain. Like Nara, a lot of tame deer run around freely…
After not being very lucky with Mount Fuji we were a bit worried about our plans to visit the Japan Alps. We based ourselves in Nagoya, which is a perfect gateway for that region, just a 90 minutes train ride and you’ve travelled from a top-notch 21st century modern metropolis to a marvellous mountain scenery where time seems to have stopped 200 years ago.
We spent our last week in New Zealand exploring the region north of Auckland. We based ourselves in Waipu and Whangarei. There are some nice beaches, beautiful coastlines and cliffs, subtropical forests, waterfalls and exciting caves. We went to see Abbey Caves in Whangarei, but these were not as easily accessible as the ones in Waipu. Going in would have included some serious climbing, and we weren’t really prepared for that, so we didn’t enter this time. Henry still…
