Roads go ever ever on

Tomorrow, it will be Halloween, which this year means our last night in the UK for a whole 30 days! I had meant to write an update for the blog before now, however life got in the way as usual. Shortly after my opening blog post Paul got the flu, which morphed into a chest infection and resulted in his worst bout of illness for years (seriously, his patient history at the doctor's is practically non-existent). He was off for two weeks in total and I was a bit worried as to whether he would actually recover in time for us to make it to New Zealand at one point! Thankfully, aside from a residual cough, he is much better now and we are both looking forward to leaving the cold temperatures and the miserable darkness behind when we jet off on Thursday night.

So I thought I would take a break from tearing my hair out packing to post some inspiration in the form of our planned itinerary! Having not been to New Zealand before (and given the distances and expense involved, unlikely to make it back there before we retire...), we found it really tricky to put this together. Although you might think NZ is fairly small on the world map, the majority of the roads are like A roads in the UK and therefore a fair bit of time is spent getting from one destination to the next. There is also some geographical hinderance,  such as an impassable whopping great big mountain range that forms the 'spine' of the South Island. Inevitably, with so many places to see and finite time, we had to cut some destinations out - notably the Bay of Islands, Otago Peninsula and Abel Tasman. We hope to return to do those at some point in the future. The map below shows the route that we eventually settled on for this trip!


View NZ Intinerary for blog in a larger map

01/11 - 04/11: Singapore. Arrive Auckland (A) on the 04/11.
B: 05/11 - 07/11: Waiheke Island
C: 07/11 - 09/11: Cooks Beach, Coromandel Peninsula
D: 09/11 - 11/11: Rotorua
E: 11/11 - 13/11: Taupo
F: 13/11 - 15/11: Wellington. Catch the ferry across the Cook Strait to the South Island on the 15/11.
G: 15/11 - 17/11: Kaikoura
H: 17/11- 18/11: Christchurch
I: 18/11 - 19/11: Lake Tekapo
J: 19/11 - 20/11: Mount Cook
K: 20/11 - 22/11: Queenstown
L: 22/11 - 23/11: Manapouri (near Te Anau)
23/11 - 24/11: Doubtful Sound overnight cruise
M: 24/11 - 26/11: Wanaka
N: 26/11 - 28/11: Franz Josef
O: 28/11 - 29/11: Christchurch. Fly back to the UK from Christchurch on the 29/11.

There you have it! Now to go and tick some more essentials off the packing list.....

Till next time,
Sarah and Paul

'Allo 'allo!

Hi there! *waves enthusastically*

Welcome to this little blog.

In case you've stumbled across this and you're wondering what you've found, this is our (well, mine really) attempt at keeping a record of our forthcoming adventures in the land of the long white cloud! Y'know, for posterity and all that. Plus I also have a rubbish memory - Boy will attest to that!



A bit of background for you....Boy and I met 13 years ago at Euston Station, having talked on t'interweb in a football chat room for some weeks beforehand. I was only 17 whereas he was 26, I lived in Manchester and him in London, but we clicked - and somehow against all the odds, maintained a long distance relationship until June 2010 when we finally moved in together. We'd actually been engaged for three years by that point and managed to fit another two years deliberation in before we eventually married over the August bank holiday weekend this summer. No-one can accuse us of rushing into things!!




Us, circa 1999

 

We married in a small village just outside Oxford called Wytham. Nigh on 90 people filled the village church to witness us say our vows then it was just a short skip hop jump round the corner to the village hall where we had our reception and a jolly good old knees up! Our wedding day was absolutely fabulous - despite the best attempts of the British weather to rain on our parade - and it was just fantastic to see so many of our friends and family in one place and enjoying themselves, you could really feel the love and happiness in the room.



Just married!

So now, a couple of months later - so as to take advantage of the better weather in the Southern Hemisphere - we are preparing to pack our bags for a month travelling around New Zealand. I've wanted to go there since before we even got together, so this is a long awaited dream for me, and as for Boy - well, he knows who wears the trousers in this household ;-). I can't explain what it is about NZ that appeals so strongly but your traditional two week honeymoon lying on a beach in the sun somewhere frankly wasn't going to cut the mustard with either of us, so NZ it is. Needless to say, we are both very excited and looking forward to it!

So, the blog. We hope it will serve a useful purpose, not only as an online diary of sorts, but also as a means of keeping in touch with the good folks back home whilst we are away. The plan is to update fairly regularly, but given our packed intinery, availability (or lack of) of wi-fi and the fact we will be on our honeymoon...! - well, you know what they say about the best laid plans and all!

Til next time,

Sarah and Paul