Franz-Josef Glacier – photo by mat79 on Flckr CC

I’m Going to New Zealand! I’m Going to New Zealand!

(jumping up & down, flailing arms in the air, squeaking)

High Fives!

OMG! OMG! OMG! I’m going to New Zealand!

I have been waiting to visit New Zealand for over three decades! That’s kind of a long time for a travel plan. It all started…

When I was 11 years old my family nearly moved to New Zealand. I had never even heard of New Zealand before. But suddenly that mysterious, strangely named country on the other side of the planet had caught my attention. Just the thought of New Zealand, whatever it was, was enough to send excited shivers up & down my spine and light flashing through my blue eyes.

Alas, my father ended up not taking the job, but New Zealand was forever embedded in my mind.

Over a decade later, in my mid twenties, I decided definitively that I was going to travel the world. I immediately began a year-long intensive research on all the countries of the world.

Week after week I borrowed piles of books from Carnegie Public Library in Pittsburgh, Pa. and spent every spare moment glued to their pages. I read guidebooks, coffee table photo books and stories about world travel. I took notes, made plans & schedules, and carefully filed them all away in my ‘Travel The World’ file box.

One of the very first countries I researched was New Zealand. I excitedly learned about Rotorua with it’s bubbling mud pools and hot geysers, the far North Island’s 90 Mile Beach, gigantic native Kauri tree forests, kiwi birds and the Maori people.

Rotorua – photo by SomeRandomNerd on Flickr CC

I discovered South Island’s Franz Josef Glacier, the fiords of Milford Sound, the week-long Milford Trek, Queenstown, coastal Abel Tasman Track and the rugged west coast.

I planned a detailed 2-6 month cycling tour of the whole country, complete with several week-long treks, soaks in hot springs and a cruise through fiords. Then I filed my whole New Zealand itinerary and supporting notes into my trusty ‘Travel the World’ file box.

It’s been sitting there awaiting me, but certainly not forgotten, for nearly two decades now.

In more recent years I’ve watched New Zealand blossom into a major tourist destination, particularly for outdoor adventures. The Kiwis invented bungee jumping. They developed their sky-diving, ballooning, caving, water sports and trekking industries and have otherwise been promoting the nation’s amazing natural wonders. And now there are Lord of the Ring movie locations to visit as well.

Kawarau Bridge Bungee – Home of Bungee Jumping! – photo by TravelingOtter on Flickr CC

Even more recently I’ve enviously watched numerous other travel bloggers make their way down to New Zealand, usually participating in many of those great outdoor adventures – jumping out of airplanes, soaring above the Earth in lofty balloons, cruising through Milford Sound and the Bay of Islands.

All along I’ve been wondering, “When the heck Do I get to go to New Zealand?!”

To that end, for the past two years I’ve made active attempts to visit New Zealand. I joined online house sitting organizations where I applied for house sitting gigs all over the country. Sadly, I never got any of them. Admittedly, I did greatly limit my opportunities by applying only for summer time assignments, since I dislike cold so much. And I had to fit a potential trip to New Zealand around other travel opportunities. So that never worked out.

Finally this year I got fed up and said, “That’s it, I’ve had it with waiting. I’m going to New Zealand.” I booked my flights and that’s that. In March, 2014 I’m going to New Zealand!

Finally, after dreaming about mysterious New Zealand since childhood then creating my own full-on travel itinerary and later watching everyone else under the sun get there, at long last it’s my turn. Yippie!

Auckland City – photo by Lincoln on Flickr CC

No wonder I’m beside myself with excitement.

Here’s my plan, in brief:

Before flying to Auckland in March, I will pop over to Sydney, Australia for a two-week visit with one of my best friends. Another big Yippie!

From there I fly to Auckland in mid March. I’ll spend 2-3 weeks exploring Auckland then slowly make my way around the north island for three months.

I’ll be visiting geothermic Rotorua, Lake Taupo, Tongariro National Park, the Bay of Plenty, Wellington and the Kapiti Coast, Kauri forests, Waitomo Caves and the Bay of Islands.

I’ll hike along volcanic ash fields, investigate bubbling geysers & mud pools, soak in hot springs, hike Tongariro Alpine Crossing (often considered the world’s best day hike) explore Waitomo Caves (full of glow worms) and visit several Hobbit film locations. (The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings were the books that inspired me as a child to travel the world!)

Green Glow Caves in New Zealand – photo by DonnieRayJones on Flickr CC

I also hope to participate in as many outdoor adrenaline adventures as possible. I want to do bungee jumping, sky diving, ballooning and sea cruises, to name a few. The only glitch is that those pursuits are quite expensive, especially in New Zealand. So let’s see how many of them I manage to squeeze in!

I’ll also be staying with locals for much of my trip, doing work exchanges via a great online community called HelpX that I discovered and joined recently. In exchange for room and board, I’ll be gardening, landscaping and taking care of animals. I love doing all those things anyhow. I’ll get to meet and hang out with locals, live in real houses, play with cats & dogs, do some cooking and share meals.

So come follow along on my 3-month adventures through New Zealand! Discover, along with me, the country’s great places and outdoor adventures. Even better, find out how you can do the same.

To that end, next week I will reveal how I can afford to travel around NZ for three months – and you can too! NZ is a very expensive country. And I am not a rich woman. Yet I’m going to stay there, adventuring, for three whole months! Find out how I’ll do it in my post next week…

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