It’s been about a month (+ a day, hence it’s Wednesday and not Tuesday) since I’ve gotten back from NZ, so today I thought I’d share my overdue travel adventure with you all. This post will be long so, so relax and have a beverage.
So, back in November, Davis and I both graduated from college. As part of our graduation gift, family friends of ours generously gifted us air miles. They told us that they thought the best gift to give someone is travel and boy, we were stunned! Not only were we pleasantly surprised to hear this exciting news, but we were also very eager and excited! When it came to choosing a place to visit, Davis and I had the hardest time deciding where to go. Prior to this gift, we made a list of places we wanted to travel to and didn’t think that we would be traveling so soon. Our first thought was to visit several countries and just stay a couple of nights, but we realized it might be a bit too much traveling for the time we planned on being gone for. Also, we were advised to pick one place so that we can thoroughly enjoy ourselves, explore the country, meet and hang out with the locals, etc.
Again, this decision was a lot more difficult because there are a million places in the world we want to see. We asked a couple of people, including our family friends, what places they recommended and what was their favorite country to visit. They named a few for us and it wasn’t until New Zealand popped up. Our family friends said it was their favorite country and if they could move there, they would. And guess what? That’s what sealed the deal. I, personally, didn’t know much about New Zealand and Davis knew a bit. We ended up doing some research and searched for pictures of the country (If you haven’t, you should!). From there, we knew we picked the right country to visit.
Now that Davis and I found a place to visit, the next tough decision we had was deciding when to go and for how long. We thought about it and finally chose to go on our trip at the end of May until almost mid June (~3 weeks). In NZ, It’s off season and we desperately wanted to get out of the heat seeing that summer was approaching much too quickly. Where we live doesn’t exactly cool down all that much, so we thought it would be the perfect time to go. About the time that we left for NZ, it was fall season and as for the weather, it would be in the low 60s for the high and high 40s for the low.
I’m sure the burning question is, “so how many bags did you pack and what did you take?” Well, this may come off as a shock, but I only took one bag, more specifically, a backpack (+ foldable pack for carrying my wallet & passport!). And not those small backpacks; I took a type of hiking packback. At first, I was worried that I wasn’t going to fit anything in there, but the backpack that I took held a bunch of my stuff. I had more compartments than I needed! If you know me, you are well aware that I like to overpack [sometimes], but on this trip, I knew that Davis and I would be on our feet a lot so I packed exactly what I needed and nothing more. It definitely took a bit of planning on my part and a lot of organizing and repacking. Originally I had packed shorts and tank tops, but I quickly took those out since I knew I wouldn’t be needing them. I ended up taking 8 or 9 outfits which included jeans and longsleeves and activewear, pjs, a swimsuit, a jacket, umbrella, tolietries, 1 pair of shoes, and flipflops. Normally when I go on vacation, I take at least 3: 1 pair of gym shoes, flipflops, and sandals, but not this time! I opted for comfy sneakers knowing that I’ll be doing a ton of walking/hiking. Not bad for being an overpacker, huh?
So for now, this is where I’m leaving you. I hope you guys enjoyed this post. Stay tuned for part 2! I’ll talk more about New Zealand and fun places that we visited.
In the mean time, let me ask you this… If you could go anywhere in the world, what place would you visit?
Anonymous says
Can’t wait to hear the rest of your travels. I would love to go to Denmark or Germany.