Shortly before the world went into survivor game mode, we had gone for our wedding trip in New Zealand. This wonderful country has been in my bucket list for years until the stars aligned, our trip was planned, we got married before that, the mister found an Ironman challenge to compete there and I was granted tourist visa to enter the country.
Given the way the world is now, I was not willing to write about my travel until my close friend and this blog’s dedicated reader M requested it. [M is a wonderful artist btw, check out her everyday life sketches in her instagram].
To be honest, I also do not know when I will get so much time to write about this lovely lovely experience so here goes my “travel series”, about the journal of New Zealand. When I started the blog, I promised myself not to make this blog the travel lifestyle kind of thing, so I am going to structure this trip in a dairy format. Stay tuned for future episodes. Hopefully I would be able to do justice to this place with my words and some pictures.
Some background Information on NZ
Aotearoa or New Zealand is an island country in the pacific ocean with its specific Māori culture and beautiful, diverse flora and fauna. The erstwhile British colony is a statutory independent country with the British Monarch as the head of the state. More general Information on New Zealand can be found on Wikipidea. For information on visiting New Zealand, visa and other travel enquiries, please visit the official New Zealand tourism site.
Travel Duration :
My recommendation would be to take three to four weeks, during the summer or autumn and take a leisurely trip through the north island and the south island ( which is typically colder). We could only afford a two week holiday in the beginning of March and we took it. The journey itself exhausted us with more than 30 hours of flight. We travelled from Germany to Auckland. The time difference is 12 hours so we really travelled around the world to reach this green and blue lush paradise. The long and exhaustive journey time is one of the reason it is better to take atleast three to four weeks holiday if you are going to New Zealand from Europe.
Our motivation to travel across continents:
Looking back, however, we did the right thing, because shortly after we came back home, hell broke loose. This holiday has been special for both of us. It was ticking off a much coveted item in my bucket list. To make this travel well worth it, we combined it with our honeymoon and my husband decided to do his full ironman distance triathlon for the third time( and first time with Ironman). A lucky coincidence was my birthday fell on race day, the seventh of March. I was up until the last moment in denial that it falls on Sunday but whatever…. So out of the many beautiful places in New Zealand, this time our focus was on Taupo and Auckland ( and the beaches surrounding it).A large part of the reason this trip was so amazing was because the week we spent in taupo, we spent with some amazing human beings.
Day One :
After thirty hours of long and ardous flight, we arrive at Auckland. Due to the corona crisis in china and irna, NZ had already strengthened it’s security measures and it took us quite a while to clear immigration. Our stay for the night was to be at Auckland Airport hotel. We arrived six in the morning and checked ourselves up early, and then went to get some breakfast. New Zealand is a vey guest friendly country and it is reflected in the behaviour of the hotel staff too. The buffet was also exquisite for our breakfast. It is a shame that I was too exhausted to properly enjoy the breakfast. We did not see anything on this day, and spent the day sleeping and recuperating. The airport is also quite far from the city and all we saw nearby is the construction going on. Early next day, we were on our way to Taupo. We were going to drive to taupo, together with other guests of the travel agency. We had booked our trip via Tri-Travel Australia, a sports based travel agency, specialising in triathlon competitions.
That is all for the beginning, stay tuned for days two to twelve.
Well, lucky you, made a trip just in time!I agree on duration. You have to go there for at least 3 weeks. Waiting for the rest 😉
I made a gigantic post, so now breaking it down to multiple posts