Trip Planning

I've been planning the last leg of our road trip through the South Island and it's been quite a challenge.  There is so much to see and so little time!  I've got my nose in my trusty guide constantly:

I don't know if I ever told you guys the story of my procuring this lifesaving travel bible, but I will recite it for you now.  I had seen it at the airport and it was $40.  Aaron said we should buy it if I really wanted it, but I refused.  $40 for a book, no matter what book is CRAZY!  Cut to a couple weeks later, we were at a hostel in Port Lincoln (swimming with great whites the next day) and I was trying to fall asleep because it was late and we had to get up early, when this group of people came in and were being super loud and obnoxious.  I was trying to ignore them when they asked if anyone was travelling to New Zealand.  Intrigued, I continued to ignore them until they said they were looking to sell their travel guide.  I immediately jumped out of bed and said, "Yes!  Yes!  Me!  Me!" (it really sounded that desperate) and they sold me their $40 guide for $10 (which is really like $7 USD)!  Woo hoo!  Score one for me!  Wow, that story was fascinating, wasn't it?  It just kept going and going, like if the Energizer Bunny just vomited useless information while banging that stupid drum.

ANYWAY, let's get back to the point, which was this guide is my master and I will follow it (literally) to the ends of the Earth.  It took me hours, but I finally finished planning.  By the end of our time in this great land they call New Zealand (if everything goes as planned), we will have at least seen a portion of each of these regions:

I know this looks like a lot, but in a couple of them we're pretty much just hitting one tiny spot and moving on, so this is actually really misleading.  Essentially, this map is completely pointless, but isn't that what life is all about?  Misleading people into thinking you've done way more with your time than you really have?  It's pretty much the essence of every job ever.  No?  Just me, huh?

Anyway, the point is, this small country is just packed full of sights and even with another month we wouldn't even come close to seeing them all.  There aren't enough months in the year!  So, I read through the guide, we picked what we wanted to see and I mapped out a route.

Here's us leaving Auckland and heading for Wellington.  Close up shot:

Zoomed out:

It's pretty much a straight shot, with one detour to quickly check out Tongariro National Park and try to get a glimpse of Mt. Ngauruhoe, the volcano Peter Jackson used for Mt. Doom in Lord of The Rings.  Yes, we're not done with all things LOTR (we're taking another tour in Wellington).  Then, we spend a couple days in Wellington before taking the ferry to the South Island, where we will have 7 days to see it all!  Here's our route (I had too many stops for Google Maps, so I had to split it into 2 different trips).  1st leg, up close:

1st leg zoomed out:

2nd leg up close:

2nd leg zoomed out:

Whew!  This doesn't even really show everything because in some parts we have to go one way and then back the same way, so it's actually much longer than it looks.  In total, I've calculated it's 47 hours and 54 minutes of driving.  It's gonna be nuts!  Especially when you take into account that many roads are narrow and windy and unpaved.  Super fun!  Not to mention, gas is pretty pricey down here (to fill up Tui (a Toyota Yaris) costs about $60), so to combat those expenses, we're trying to camp out as much as possible.  I used my handy Campermate app to find us sights to stop at along the way (trying to figure out where we would be when we stop every night):

This is the best app ever!  The purple sites are the more expensive, the blue are cheap (like $5/night) and the green (not pictured) are the free sites.  They even show red sites, meaning they're not legit campsites and camp out at your own risk.  Awesome!  They even have reviews from people who've stayed there and what they thought (which I love).  If you're ever in New Zealand, first of all you have to rent a car/camper and camp out at least once.  It's just so quintessentially New Zealand.  Second, download this app because it's fantastic.

So, that's what we've been doing with our lives lately, enjoying our last days in Auckland and getting ready for our long, arduous journey (all comparisons to Leo in The Revenant are perfectly acceptable).

Today is Valentine's Day (we're a day ahead, remember?) and Aaron and I have plans (I'll hopefully have some good pictures later).  Whatever your plans are for Valentine's Day (singular or coupled), I hope they're fun!  I have to say, the most memorable Valentine's Days we've ever had were the ones where we didn't buy each other expensive stuff (don't get me wrong, those are fun too!), but instead we did something together.  I'll never forget the time Aaron read the GPS wrong and we ended up walking across San Francisco.  We started off next to The Bay Bridge and by the end we were at The Golden Gate.  AND it had taken us so long to get there that the place we were going to closed, so we just stopped into a tiny Thai place, drenched in sweat and laughed.  It was the best/worst Valentine's Day.  On second thought, it probably would have been a lot easier if he had just bought me something shiny.  Either way, this Valentine's Day is the year we were in New Zealand, so no matter what it's gonna be good!

Only 2 more weeks until we're home!  Crazy how time flies...