Finally! Last preps made and hopefully no more changes from the airlines…

So after about 8 months of planning, changing the plan, replanning, changing the replan, we’re finally close to getting on with our adventure. New Zealand and Thailand will be the longest adventure yet coming in right at 13 weeks. There’s been numerous searches for homes, activities, and oh yeah, airline tickets. United Airlines has by far caused the most disruption with 8 flight changes and 2 cancellations but it looks like even UA has settled down and we are good to go.

The homes we’ve reserved were through a site called, “Bookabach”. After researching several homes I’ve come to understand that a vacation rental in NZ is called a “Bach” hence the website name. Every home we rented, no exceptions, offered us a discount when I asked. Some more than others but on average I would say around 10% or a free night. Not going to make us rich but collectively it paid for the rental car which is much appreciated!

The website isn’t very user friendly and has some quirks like assuming because you made an inquiry about a home that you would automatically send a payment if the owner “accepted” your inquiry.  Personally, I prefer to communicate with the owners and understand the “other costs” like linens, cleaning, parking, taxes, and fees, so we didn’t respond to the “send me your money email”. Instead we contacted the owners and asked if there were any discounts or incentives offered during our time, like I said, all responded with a yes.

So moving on….. Packing. Always a challenge to think through what goes into the suitcase and what the weather will be at our destination. Using our ever faithful packing spreadsheet, we start editing out things we know we won’t need. For this trip it was things like sweaters, sweat pants and shirts, heavy coats, boots, thermal socks, etc. The weather is going to be a warm to hot on this adventure so light clothes and layers are the dress of the day.

Our search for activities has come up with a few surprising events like the Hokitika Wildfoods Festival where patrons sample everything from witchity grubs to crawly little creatures that had the misfortune of becoming an appetizer. Yes, there will be pictures!  We do have a fjord overnight tour, temple tours, floating market tour, train market (gotta see this one, its not what you’re thinking!!!) and even a monk blessing scheduled. And there is also the time by the pool or ocean that will put to the test any myths about cheap drinks and food.

I would throw in a couple of picture’s of our packing and go into depth discussing how to roll shirts and underwear but that’s something you can probably figure out on your own.  More to follow……..

Cheers!