A family trip to New Zealand has been on our bucket list for a decade! We just wanted to make it happen!
We he had to find the right time when all kids were going to be home. Let me tell you, it required a ton of planning ahead--me checking BYU school schedule a year in advance and figuring out when Katya would be going back from her mission and leaving for BYU, Alex finishing his BYU semester and coming home before his mission, plus knowing the spring break schedule for Mark. It was decided that we will have TWO weeks together if we try hard--end of April to middle of May.
I will spare you all the mundane details, but let's just say, I had to reserve our tickets 11 months in advance and I did it by paying only $500 total roundtrip PLUS Robert and I flew business class on the way back. The secret, my friends, is the fact that I learned the credit card game and made a lot of effort to book the tickets with points. Sure, I could have cashed out the points I used to $900 but that wouldn't have been enough to pay for a roundtrip economy ticket to New Zealand from Raleigh.
On April 26th we departed on our adventure! We flew from Raleigh to Houston at 5 pm (Robert and I got upgraded to business class because I had matched my Delta Platinum status to United fancy status and that helped us get the upgrade!). Then we flew from Houston to Auckland...13 hours!!! We had economy seats, it was tight... especially because our row was the row that could be converted to a sleeper bench, but we wouldn't have fit on it. So it had the cushions behind our calves and we couldn't put our feet under the chair, if that makes sense, only in front of us. Anyway... it was Katya, me and Robert in one row. Alex, Mark and a stinky guy were behind us (poor guys... they didn't sleep at all).
We arrived in Auckland and had to go through a massive border control procedure, probably one of the most thorough ones ever. We waited for our luggage for a very long time (we had one checked suitcase) and then we had to stand in line to go through customs. And the biggest issues was our HIKING BOOTS! Yep...if you have any non-new hiking boots, they have to be absolutely cleaned because they are so afraid to get something infectious into their soil. They didn't check ours but they did ask us if they were new or washed or what. We had over two hours before our flight to Queenstown, so we thought we would be safe....but no. The line took too long, and then we had to walk to the domestic terminal while everything was under construction...so we missed our connecting flight. Thankfully, Auckland-Queenstown route is a very popular one so they have flights almost every hour or two.
That’s us, trying to make our flight, transferring from international to the domestic terminal.
We had to wait a bit at the domestic terminal where they had a very interesting set up--no throwing away water situation! It was already April 28th! So we basically skipped April 27.
The flight Auckland-Queenstown is considered to have one of the most beautiful sceneries on landing. Auckland is on the North Island and we were flying all the way to the South Island to start our expedition:)).
Only the most skilled pilots are allowed to fly this route because of how tricky it is to land in Queenstown. It's like you land in between the mountains...so the pilots need extra training.
We arrived in Queenstown after a majestically beautiful landing and quickly headed for our rental car. We had a reserved a Toyota SUV for us at a local company near the airport, but at the same time it turned out that we had a uncancelled reservation with Avis (I must mention for memories sake that taking care of car rental was the task assigned to Robert-hahaha) right there at the terminal! So while we were waiting for our suitcase, we discussed with Avis the option of getting a rental from them. They gave us an amazing price for a much bigger vehicle that we had reserved from a local company. Sadly, we had to pay a penalty fee for not showing up at the local company, but it was all worth it!
We got the amazing....drum roll please...HYUNDAI STARIA. When we first saw it in the parking lot, we all laughed so hard! We had never seen anything like that. It felt like a mix of a starship with an ice cream truck. BUT WE LOVED IT! The kids could spread out as it had three rows of seats and we had a ton of room for our luggage! The windows were huge so we could see a ton as passengers too. It had a sliding door, and it was still pretty narrow although spacious. Here is a picture of it from a later day just to give you an idea.
Robert had to revert quickly to his resourceful British driving days, and so we had no problems along the way.
We had some time to kill before we could check in at our rental house where we would be staying for three nights. So we went out to eat...at a Mexican place-haha. It was pretty good! And the portions were "just enough". We also went to a grocery store to get some basic snacks and fruits/veggies. Man...food is expensive at the grocery stores there!
Finally, we were able to check in. We rented an adorable spacious place up in the hills, overlooking the lake and the mountains. It was absolutely perfect and gorgeous! It was also most expensive, but I wanted to make sure we get some much needed rest quickly and get over our jet lag.
We went out to eat and after dinner we strolled over to the park by the lake and took A LOT of pictures.
I can't even say--here is our sponsor of the trip because technically I was the one who made the flights happen with points-hahaaa.. Well, really, yeah...this trip still cost us an arm and a leg with all the accommodations and amazing activities and food.
Just trying to stay awake a bit longer.
Beautiful Katya
Happy together again
Robert was fascinated with this tree.
It was so beautiful, way more magical than the pictures.
What was really weird is that it was AUTUMN! It's as if it's the end of October, so the leaves were falling and it was getting chilly.
It's a nice park right in Queenstown.
And that is our view from the house in the evening. That's where the airplanes land.
Mark still had to do homework at some odd hours of the day/night.
And here is a view from our balcony. Our kids all said that they can totally see themselves living in Queenstown someday!
The following morning we headed to Glenorchy. It was a beautiful drive! The goal was to go on a hike.
The following morning we headed to Glenorchy. It was a beautiful drive! The goal was to go on a hike.
I must say, it’s a little challenging to write about the trip 8 months after it happened, so some details are hazy.
Hazy like this view-haha.
To give you a glimpse of how it looked in the area--this a picture I took on our way to Glenorchy. So peaceful!
On the way to our first hike in New Zealand!
We took the Routerburn Track that we were told was very doable and scenic.
The hike was exactly what we wanted!
Lots of hanging bridges and hilly paths.
Pictures don't do the picturesque views justice.
This is where we turned around. We could have kept going and going and slept in a hut overnight to just keep going, but...we turned around.
Mark, where are you??? Oh, I am just chilling...
Apparently, we really liked hanging bridges;)
This was the first time we learned about these animals!!! They were everywhere--mostly dead though.
Yummy pies at a village cafe after the hike.
In the afternoon, we went on another hike called Bobs Cove track.
I think Katya took at least 50 pictures of just me and Robert. The boys were not embarrassed at all.
Oh we had some really funny ones!
I am just happy we have pictures to keep memories alive.
Look at that view behind us! It was so amazing!
We did take a ton of family selfies on this trip.
On the second day we had an adventure to Millford Sound, but that's another post. Here are pictures from our adventure disc golfing after checking out from the rental.
It was absolutely THE most beautiful and fun and adventurous disc golf course ever! I loved it!
I mostly walked around and followed everyone else as they played.
Almost got it by a disc only once though. It literally flew where I was standing as I ducked.
We decided that it's actually very helpful to take pictures with signs to remember where we were.
Our goodbye picture in Queenstown on Day 4 of our trip--this is May 1. We all look pretty tired, but by then we were over jet lag, yay!
To Be Continued.
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