12 days of adventure

Last night Dan and I had our latest conversation with Lori our wonderful travel agent. I can say we finally decided roughly the locations we will be visiting while in New Zealand. We also determined the best way to travel around. Traveling in the country will be a combination of self-driving, a train ride and flying.

As of now we are looking at 2 or 3 nights in Auckland. This is known as the city of sails and is a very well known international city. One activity I would like to do while in Auckland is take a trip up to the observation deck at the top of Sky Tower (similar to Sears Tower / Empire State Building). It should give us a good view of the city and surrounding areas. Dan and I have yet to decided what else to do but since it is a large city I'm sure we will be plenty busy.

Next we are off to Rotorua with a pit stop along the way to the Waitomo Caves (glow worm lights). This region of New Zealand is very hot!!! It has boiling lakes and naturally warmed pools and I believe they have some geysers (I'll have to check that). This area also has the Agrodome which celebrates all things about New Zealand sheep. They have way more sheep than people and so of course they need to show them off. There are also a lot of lakes here and so some water sports or swimming will be on the agenda.

We will most likely fly from Rotorua (North Island) to Christchurch in the South Island. This smaller city has very rich history and is also near to the coast. I believe if we are lucky enough I may want to swim with some dolphins. This is kinda up in the air but I think it would be really cool. After a couple days here we board the TranzAlpine train. This train runs through the southern alps and near glaciers and great scenery. It ends near Franz Josef.

At Franz Josef we will do some hiking at the base of a glacier or maybe on and in a glacier (I hope) and spend some relaxation time in the beautiful countryside. The population in Franz Josef is 330 people (according to wikipedia). So this smaller, quaint village should give us a different view of New Zealand and get us out of the cities.

Finally we will end up in Queenstown near the southern tip of the South Island. We will spend the most nights here and spend a lot of time on day trips. A cruise on Milford Sound located on the west coast is the fjordlands and is supposed to be very scenic. There is also the Fjordlands National Park where Dan and I can go kayaking and hiking.

After all this is done we will be heading back up to Auckland and then back to the states. It should be one unbelievable adventure. I just can't wait to get there already.