I'm probably not alone in saying that I fell in love with New Zealand after seeing Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings films (please say I'm not alone!). It's been on my travel bucket list ever since; and then, when they rebuilt Hobbiton for the Hobbit films, and made the Hobbit holes permanent for visitors, that sealed the deal. I was going to be a real-life Hobbit!
I first visited New Zealand in December 2016. I had just graduated from my nursing degree, my then-boyfriend (now husband) had completed his PhD and it was time to treat ourselves after all that hard work. We'd talked about going to New Zealand for so long, we even had a guidebook on our bookshelf, which I'd bought for D in 2012. It was definitely time to go exploring.
We planned our trip for months; we arrived into Auckland, where we picked up a hire car and spent three weeks driving all over the country (both North and South islands) until we reached Queenstown, our final destination (more on this trip in another post). We had negotiated as much time off work as possible, giving us just under four weeks in total, which included travel time and three days in Hong Kong on our way over. In our minds, this would be enough to 'get it out of our system', to do as much as we could in New Zealand, to not have any regrets, and to feel like we had 'ticked it off our list'.
How wrong we were.
For me, this trip kickstarted a love affair with New Zealand that I still haven't been able to satiate.
The endless green and rolling hills of the countryside, the emptiness of the landscape as you drive between cities, the tropical Coramandel peninsula and the rainy West Coast glaciers; New Zealand has it all. Even when the clouds roll over, the landscape is stunning.
The people are so friendly too; and I mean, why wouldn't you be in a constant good mood if you lived in Middle Earth? From the big cities, to the rural towns, we found the locals were always so helpful and wanted to share their amazing country with us.
Even the 30+ hours of traveling couldn't put me off coming back! (New Zealand is about the furthest land mass you can travel to from the UK. It's a gruelling trip.)
Since then, I've been back to New Zealand twice; we returned in December 2017 for our honeymoon, and then again in June this year, for our recce trip before we relocate to Christchurch in September.
I mean, the photos speak for themselves. New Zealand is simply GORGEOUS. I defy anyone to visit and not fall in love with this country and the laid-back way of life. Oh, and if you're still in any doubt - try the wine.
Have you ever been to New Zealand? Or is it on your travel bucket list? Why did you fall in love with it?
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