Clare and I officially retired in December last year and finally have the time to do some of the things that we have only dreamed about over the past years. One place that we have often thought that we would like to visit is New Zealand.
New Zealand is still a wonderfully attractive destination for travellers. From the volcanic heat in the North Island with hissing geysers, hot springs and volcanoes to the south glacial ice that has scoured dramatic landscapes from the peaks of the majestic snow-capped Southern Alps and all the way to the awe inspiring sounds of Fiordland National Park
We leave the UK on 4th December 2018 and make a first stop in Bangkok, Thailand. We are there for 3 days, time to take a break in the flight and take in a few of the sights. From there we fly on to Auckland, We are planning to be in New Zealand for about seven weeks in total, which will give us three weeks or so to tour the North Island by car. During this time we will have Christmas and the New Year. Christmas will be in the Bay of Islands and we will be celebrating New Years-eve in Auckland. From there we are planning to explore the South Island in a Motor Home. We have about four weeks there so should have plenty of time to take in most of the key sites.
Having experienced New Zealand we leave for Sidney, Australia on the 27th January 2019 for a week. We don’t have the time to see much of the rest of the country but we hope to have a great time seeing all the sites of Sidney.
Finally we will have to start thinking about going home. We fly out of Australia on 1st February and have another mid journey break in Thailand. This time we are going down to the beaches at Krabi. We have a week there to unwind and top up the tan before flying back to the UK for 8th February 2019.
I can’t go without a thank you to Alan and Peter who we are leaving to manage the house and indeed the dog while we are away and without whom we would have found things very difficult.
Through this blog we will keep a written and visual record of our experiences and hopefully share some of this with the people we know. Please have a look at the Picture Gallery to share some of our experiences.