The adventure begins this week. We will arrive in Christchurch, New Zealand on Saturday after almost 24 hours of travel time from Seattle, with layovers in San Francisco and Auckland. The longest leg is 13 hours from San Francisco to Auckland.

One of the mind-boggling things in this extended travel is that Friday will not exist for us this week. Because we cross the International Date Line, we will go from Thursday to Saturday, skipping over Friday all together. Gosh, I hope there wasn’t anything I was supposed to do on Friday. So weird!

Once in New Zealand we will rent a car and get accustomed once again to driving on the left side of the road. We drove on the left in Scotland last year and while the first day was tense, after that we kind of relaxed, settled in, and it worked fine. We are planning on visiting as many of the beautiful National Parks on the South Island as we can. We have lots of day hikes planned in stunning parts of the country, but no extended hiking like we have done the last couple of years.

We have planned a fairly relaxing itinerary where we are spending two to four nights at almost every stop.  As many of you know, I often remember our travels by what we eat and New Zealand should have some interesting and delicious food as well. Lots of good lamb and what are called Green Lipped Mussels. I am not clear on whether the mussels have green lips or the lips of those who eat them turn green. We’ll find out. There are great wineries in New Zealand and we will make sure to visit at least one. New Zealand is well known for meat pies which look delicious. Also lots of salmon and, of course, fish and chips. Lots to “yum” about.

New Zealand has what they call “Great Walks.” These are multi-day hikes through some of the country’s most spectacular vistas. The government has built very nice “huts” (more like lodges) along these walks and there are beds and cooking facilities available for use. We won’t be using those huts, but we do plan to experience parts of a couple of the Great Walks by doing day hikes in and back out at both ends of the walk and that way getting a good feel for the walk.

In the Māori language, New Zealand is Aotearoa. The above map shows both islands. Again, we will be spending all our time on the South Island. The map below shows the South Island and many of the highlights which we will be enjoying.

The flora and fauna should be just amazing. The NZ islands are one of the last places to be populated by humans so there is much that is unique and not seen anywhere else in the world. We hope to get lots of cool pictures. 

If you received this post in your e-mail then you are already subscribed and set to go. If you are reading this by navigating to the website, hit the subscribe button on the home page and follow the instructions.

Kia ora ( a common New Zealand way of saying hello and goodbye which comes from the Māori language.)

Coe & Janet