A New Year calls for New Zealand

Disclaimer: This post is not related to the camper

When I first met my lovely girlfriend Liz via an online dating site, we hit it off right away. I quickly found out that she had studied abroad while in college. Where you might ask? Well of course it had to be New Zealand. The land lost in wonder and amazement of natural beauty. I first fell in love with the country by viewing it in the Lord of the Rings series as a teen. I wished to go there but seeing as how it was on the other side of the planet and cost a small fortune to get there, the cards were not in my favor. Finding out that Liz had been there for a few months and already knew some key facts about how things worked down under the down under, we realized that a visit for me and revisit for her could be possible.

I don't remember who made the suggestion first but we knew we had to get there. Our fathers quickly stated that there was no way we were going alone and that their presence was needed for the trip. We obliged and began to spitball ideas for the journey. Many back and forths went on over which places to see and what would be feasible in the two weeks we were to spend in mountainous heaven. Finally, we came to the conclusion that a loop of the South Island was our goal. As of this post, we are just about completed with our accommodation reservations. They are as follows (Stock photos used for now):

 

• Feb 5th: Fulton team arrives in NZ and spend the night in Christchurch

• Feb 6th: Glaser team arrives in NZ and spend the night in Christchurch
• Fulton team travels to Kaikoura to hike Mount Fyffe.
• Feb 7th: Glaser team travels to Kaikoura to meet with Fulton team and create team Fulser. . . or Glaton? Any who, we spend the night in Kaikora

• Feb 8th: We drive through the Hunruni Region via Highway 7 heading West and once we hit the coast, we drive north up Highway 6 to spend the night camping at a place called the ballroom overhang.

 
• Feb 9th: The team will head south down the West coast on Highway 6 and spend the night in the vicinity of the Franz Josef Glacier

 

• Feb 10th: Our drive will continue south to Queenstown; our destination for the next three days

 

• Feb 13th: Once we are good and tired of Queenstown, our travels will continue by foot on the Routeburn Track. This trail will take us from Queenstown to the Divide which is between Te Anau and Milford Sound. Its a three day hike with one night in a hut and the other in a tent.

• Feb 15th: Coming off the track, we will get our car and drive North in the Hollyford Valley to reach Gunn's Camp where we will spend the night.

• Feb 16th: We head as west we can to Milford Sound for a bit of boating in the Fiordlands with the night being spend in Te Anau.

• Feb 17th: We head back east through Queenstown and follow Highway 8 up to Mt Cook for a stay in the local hostel.

 

• Feb 18th: The drive from Mt. Cook to Christchurch will be short so that we have a few hours to explore and appreciate the city. We are to stay in a trendy modern hostel in the city.
• Feb 19th: We head to Akaroa to see this French inspired area and spend the night at a local stay.

 

• Feb 20th: The team heads back to Christchurch for team Glaser's departure in the PM.
• Feb 21st: Team Fulton departs in the AM.

 That's the general idea for our trip and I already know we are going to have a great time. Wish us safe journeys and stay tuned for image uploads and the continuation of our camper saga as we near our departure date of March-ish.