Back in 2000 I moved to Wellington, New Zealand and lived there for 7 years, returning to Canberra in 2007. Every year since then I’ve been meaning to go back, but life just has a way of interfering. When I got married in 2013, it was my intention that we’d go on a honeymoon to New Zealand, but that was 3 years ago. FINALLY, the time has come. The timing is right. The planets have aligned, and the tickets have been booked.
We’re going to New Zealand in October this year, at the time of our 3rd wedding anniversary, for our honeymoon.
It’ll be a 2 week holiday, and while we’ll be spending some quality time in Wellington so I can catch up with friends and show my wife around the most beautiful city in the world, we’ll also be doing a couple of road trips around both islands. It’s going to be a bit hectic to get everything in within the 2 weeks, but we’ll do it!
/start .Wellington
We’ll be flying in to Wellington for 3 nights from 23 October and hiring a car for 2 weeks while we’re there. The first few days in Wellington should be enough time to show my wife around most of the beautiful parts of the city. I’ll visit some of my old hangouts and reminisce on the good ol’ days, and catch up with some of my old friends.
.Christchurch
Then we’ll start the south island road trip, catching a ferry from Wellington (bottom of the north island) to Picton (top of the south island). From there we’ll drive down the east coast to Christchurch and stay overnight.
.Queenstown
The next day will be heading further south west to Queenstown, where we’ll spend 2 nights in a luxury hotel at the time of our anniversary. Apparently there’s a lot to do around Queenstown. We’ll effectively have only 1 day and 2 nights there, so I might change that to 2 days and 3 nights.
.Greymouth
Then we’ll head up the west coast and stop in at the Franz Josef Glacier before staying overnight at Greymouth.
.Wellington
The final leg of the southern tour will take us back up to Picton and across the ferry to Wellington, where we’ll relax for another 2 nights before heading off on the next leg of the road trip.
M.atamata
We’ll head north through the heart of the north island to Matamata, which is where there’s this cute little Hobbit village my wife wants to see. We’ll check it out, frolic with the Hobbits, and then head up to the Coromandel where we’ll stay overnight.
.Coromandel
We’ll do 2 nights in the Coromandel, because it’s fucking awesome, that’s why. It’s my favourite part of the north island and deserves a least 2 nights and boat rides around the islands up there.
.Rotorua
Following our fill of the amazing scenery up in Coromandel, we’ll head back south to Rotorua, where we’ll dodge steaming geysers and see a couple display villages and events, before heading back to Wellington via Napier.
.Wellington
There’ll be another 2 nights in Wellington to relax, before heading back to Canberra and returning to work the next day.
Canberra /end
Two weeks won’t be enough! But at least it’s a good starter for future trips. Maybe even to live there again. It’s an end goal of mine.
What I mean by ‘starter for future trips’ is that we’re going to be visiting NZ (and other countries) more often. In September, Singapore Airlines are starting direct international flights from Canberra to Wellington, so it’ll be much cheaper to fly there directly instead of via Sydney or Melbourne. I booked the tickets last night and the total cost for the two of us for return tickets was $881. Pretty damn good for a 3.5 hour direct flight, compared to the old way of having to put aside most of a day to catch a flight from Canberra to Sydney/Melbourne, then connect with another flight to NZ and then return with the same process, for twice the price.
Singapore Airlines are going to be introducing direct flights to other countries as well, like Thailand, Hong Kong and of course Singapore. So there’s going to be a few places we’ll scoot off to for a few days as time goes by.
Ah, holidays. Such fun.
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