Melyssa-with-a-Y

M onday morning, March 10 , we were off to the Auckland airport to head south to Christchurch for the start of the Sir Edmund Hillary Explorer Rail & Coach tour. The program was holding an orientation at a hotel by the airport, and after waiting and searching for a shuttle, it turned out that the hotel was only about a 5 minute walk from the airport! Of course it was too early to check into our room, so they held our bags and we wandered over to a nearby shopping center.  Eventually, we checked in, threw our stuff in our room, and found the Pounamu tours (the organizing company) desk. They gave us small travel mugs and a big packet of papers with colored ribbons attached. At orientation they explained that there were two buses, pink and green. We were on the pink team. There were extra colored ribbons to be added for later parts of the tour. Already impressed with their level of organization.  We were on our own for dinner, so we went back to the same shopping center and...

John and I have been talking about going to New Zealand since we met. For our 10th wedding anniversary, we decided to go BIG, and go there for three weeks - I mean, when you fly halfway around the world, you need enough time to adjust so you can enjoy the trip, right? We wanted a way to see lots of things in a short time (and not have to drive it all ourselves). John came across the Sir Edmund Hillary Explorer Rail & Coach tours. So that took care of the south island, but there's so much to see on the north island, including Hobbiton ! For a small country, NZ sure has a lot of "highlights."  There's a link to my google photos at the end of each day, starting with Friday. Week 1: North Island Adventure We left Austin on March 2, and because we crossed the international date line, we missed March 3 entirely and arrived on Tuesday, March 4 . :) I booked our Auckland hotel with points, thanks to a special deal from Chase in January that offered a 70% bonus when I tr...