Upcoming Trip Highlights

I realized last week when writing this post that I haven’t mentioned much about our upcoming trip to New Zealand and Australia. When we booked the trip over a year ago, it just always seemed so far away, and now we’re less than two weeks away. This year has seriously just flown by. We only get a “taste” of each city in order for us to visit all 5 places in a two week period, but there’s so much I’m looking forward to. We got to customize our trip’s itinerary for the most part and were able to add on any excursions we were interested in that weren’t included in the price of the trip. So here’s a few things that we’re doing while we’re down there!

Auckland
Auckland_SkylineAfter a 13 hour flight between LA and Auckland, I’m planning on us being jet-lagged, so we’re taking this day easy. We’re going on a tour of the harbor and then possibly a self-guided walking tour of the city or at least the area we’re staying in. We’re staying close to an area with restaurants and bars, so we’ll most likely end our day at one of those places.

Rotorua
White_IslandThe featured excursion for Rotorua is us taking a helicopter ride to an ACTIVE volcanic island. It includes a walking tour on the island as well. There used to be a sulphur mine on the island, so it will be stinky! This was our one major splurge of the trip (compared to the cost of everything else), but considering it’s a 45 minute one-way ride to the island, we thought it would be worth it.

Queenstown
Oh, Queenstown…I have HIGH expectations for you. I really do. Being on a lake surrounded by mountains, the wineries, and outdoor activities…Please be as awesome as I’m wanting you to be.
DoubtfulSoundThe one excursion we’re doing while in Queenstown is a day trip to Doubtful Sound (think Lord of the Rings movie scenery). It’s similar to Milford Sound (a top tourist destination to visit in southern NZ), but much bigger and less crowds. It’s suppose to be spectacular, even on a rainy day.

Sydney
Sydney_HarbourOther than a tour of the Opera House and wanting to go up to the Pylon Lookout, we have no concrete plans for Sydney. We only have 1.5 days there (bummer) and actually know someone that lives there, so we’re going to try and meet up with him and have a “fun day” with our own personal tour guide. We’re celebrating our 1 year wedding anniversary while in Sydney, so we’ll most likely find a nice place to have a dinner.

Cairns
CairnsOur trip ends in Cairns (pronounced “cans”). Our trip included a snorkling excursion to the Great Barrier Reef—which Tim is most excited about. Snorkling in Hawaii a few years ago was awesome, so I hoping this is even better.

We have a few things left on our to-do list before we leave—ordering an electricity transformer, an extra battery for our SLR camera, copies of our ID’s. Tim decided to buy an Osprey backpack, rather than a suitcase, so at least that was crossed off the list!

—m.

Image Sources: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5