Welcome

Welcome to Michael and Nancy's New Zealand 2014 travelblog!

This blog will serve as the official historical record of our trip, so you may find yourself facing way more information than you have the time or inclination to absorb; therefore, feel free to just skim or look at the photos. We promise not to be offended.


First, some background. A trip to New Zealand has been at the top of Michael's bucket list for probably fifteen years. However, every time he broached the idea with Nancy, she would identify some household project or other practical endeavor that seemed more necessary to spend the money on: renovating the family room, installing a paver patio, updating the master bedroom and bathroom, celebrating a child's wedding, getting the whole family together for a week in the Poconos. These were all things Michael wanted to do as well, but he never forgot his desire to visit New Zealand.

Why New Zealand? Michael thought it sounded attractive even before Peter Jackson used its stunning landscapes as the setting for his Lord of the Rings movies. Michael had never been assigned to do a report on Maori culture in grade school, nor had he ever read a novel set in "the land of the long white cloud." Perhaps he had been inspired by a National Geographic article sometime in his past, because images of New Zealand's varied geography and cultures have occupied his mind for years. Nancy claims the idea was planted by Cathy Stokes, a well-traveled friend who had raved about her visit to New Zealand in the 1990s. So when Michael's sister DeEtte and her husband Art moved to Auckland last year for a three-year assignment, Michael and Nancy realized that it was time to seize the day and make the trip happen.

The first task was to contact Delta to find out when redeemable SkyMiles seats were available. February 2014 was open. Game on.

Michael had been considering early retirement from his corporate job anyway, so he began exploring options that would allow him more flexibility to travel. When he announced his intention to retire last fall, his supervisors asked him to stay longer--which he agreed to do, as long as he could take February off for the trip. They agreed to use that month as a test of their ability to manage without him--knowing that he would be back in March to help fix or rework anything that did not go smoothly while he was gone.

This was starting to look doable.

Throwing out the copy of Fodor's New Zealand Travel Guide he had bought (too optimistically) eight years earlier, Michael made a trip to Barnes and Noble to pick up the latest version. While there, he also grabbed a copy of Top 10 Sydney. After spending a week reading through them both, dog-earring the pages that described places that appealed to him, he spent a few more weeks doing online research, keeping track of every site he visited and noting details such as operating days and hours, the duration of each activity, and prices. He solicited suggestions from family and friends who had made similar trips, while DeEtte asked her Kiwi acquaintances for recommendations. Eventually Michael sent a compilation of suggested activities to Nancy and DeEtte for input. Surprisingly, there weren't many things either one nixed. (Even though DeEtte's daughter Robyn assured Michael that her mother was really looking forward to bungee-jumping, that didn't make it onto the list.) The only problem was that Michael had identified enough activities to fill six months instead of just one.

Michael had to buy a bigger suitcase for a month's worth of gear.

After spending several nights with Google Maps and the relevant air and bus schedules, Michael began crafting an itinerary that included as many adventures as possible, while providing enough downtime for recuperation and "mundane" things like eating, sleeping, and laundry. (Debbie Loftus would be so proud of him!) Once this Tetris puzzle was complete and had been approved by Nancy and DeEtte, he started making reservations, creating PDFs of every online confirmation and receipt, and entering every piece of pertinent information (daily schedules, addresses and phone numbers, links to websites and Google Maps, etc.) into an Excel spreadsheet. He imported that into a Google calendar for access from his mini-tablet and Nancy's notebook. His company-issued Blackberry (yes, some people still use them) will provide international coverage for email, web, and IM, and--to avoid paying AT&T's international rates--he plans to install a prepaid travel sim card in an old cell phone when they reach New Zealand. (Michael seems determined to make this not only the trip of a lifetime, but also a demonstration of his mastery of modern digital devices.)

One reason we are eager to leave Cincinnati.

January has been as brutally cold in Cincinnati as in much of the U.S., so we are really looking forward to packing shorts, swimsuits, and flip-flops. The journey begins on 1 February 2014. Our plan is to post an entry describing each day's events and experiences. Depending upon internet access, we may not be able to post entries until a day or two after the fact, but we'll try to keep up as much as possible.

We anticipate a month full of exciting adventures to write about. We hope you'll enjoy following along.