What??? You are not going to New Zealand?!?

When we shared our plans for the year off some time ago with a dear friend, he was in complete shock. How could we possibly NOT put New Zealand onto our trip schedule, while planning to stay for an extended period in Australia? That didn´t make any sense to him at all. And he had no problem stating that very clearly, either.

So a few weeks went by. Then, when we looked for our flights to the Cook Islands, we realized, that most of them were routed via Auckland in – guess where – New Zealand. So we made the spontaneous decision to add 3 weeks in New Zealand to our trip schedule. What a wonderful chance to be flexible and hey, our friend was right. New Zealand is absolutely wonderful and we love it! But to complete the story: We decided to focus on the North Island to not rush it unnecessarily. Besides, we also figured that the South Island could be pretty nasty and cold this time of year. When I shared the “good news” with my friend, he was in shock again. How could we possibly NOT put the South Island onto our trip schedule, when the North Island was like coming to Germany and only visiting the Ruhrgebiet?

He is probably right, like he was the first time. And there is far too much beauty on the North Island to rush it. So there is our excuse to come back to New Zealand some time! And it beautifully illustrates the “problem” with travelling. The more you travel, the more you start to realize, how much there is you haven´t seen!