As if living in China for my 2nd year, being lost in translation and slammed with cultural differences is not adventurous enough…

As if sleeping in a hut in the grasslands of Inner Mongolia after hours of horseback riding for my first time was not adventurous enough…

As if camel trekking for my first time and camping out in the Gobi Desert was not adventurous enough…

As if zip-lining through The Great Wall was not adventurous enough…

As if jungle trekking through Taman Negara, Malaysia was not adventurous enough…

As if traveling miles on an overnight sleeper bus was not enough…

As if backpacking through South East Asia on the solo for my first time was not adventurous enough…

I think this year’s mega-trip is gonna be a good contender to all adventures aforementioned, as since I’ll be heading to “THE ADVENTURE CAPITAL OF THE WORLD,” NEW ZEALAND! Whoooo!!

Prior to leaving the States the first time around, I had a hit list of countries on this part of the world (and so far, I’ve done pretty well with just a few more to make complete), but I had also put Australia/New Zealand on the “if I get around/chance to it, it’d be lovely” list… But lookey here now, NZ moves up a few ranks… and I’m not complaining about it one bit!

I’ll be joined by a friend from “It Never Rains in Southern California,” Lundy (meeting up with Stateside friends seems to be a running theme this year with my travels; far cry from last year, when I either trekked solo or with folks here in the ‘Hai) and we’ll be renting a campervan, roadtrippin’ through both South and North Islands for 3 weeks!  (actually 2 for him, 3 for me.) QUITE UBERLY EXCITED!! (Lundy is quite the roll w/the punches-adventure enthusiast, so this trip will be action packed, I’m sure! I just hope I survive it all in one piece!! Ha!)

Who would’ve ever thunk this city gal could do such things?? Now, I’ll get to add: living out of a van to the list! My oh My!  But let’s be serious now, we won’t be living out of the mobile home throughout the entire time…. only for the few pitstops along the way to our final bigger city destinations, where we’ve got a few snazzy ooh la la spots lined up! :-)

So what’s on the itinerary of our own version of Road Rules New Zealand, you may ask? Here be the rough sketch answer:

South Island:

  • Christchurch
  • Mt. Cook / MacKenzie Country / Twizel
  • Lake Tekapo
  • Queenstown / Lake Wakatipu
  • Te Anau
  • Milford Sounds
  • Lake Mahinapua
  • Fox Glaciers
  • Franz Josef Glaciers
  • Hokitika

North Island:

  • Rotorua
  • Auckland
  • Coromandel Peninsula
  • Bay of Islands

Sights / Sounds / Actions:

An island-country known for the set of the Lord of the Rings film, beautious glaciers, lakes, mountains, quaint city dwellings, farmland, campgrounds etc. offers mucho!!!  including: sky diving, bungy jumping, jet boating, kayaking, gondola riding, luge’ing, tramping, cruising, caving, camping, hiking, beaching etc…. Let’s just say there’ll be more than enough to keep our hearts thumping, adrenaline rushing and bodies in motion!…. So take that, Road Rules!!! pshhh!

I’ll try my best to keep ya’ll updated as we trek along, but as always, don’t you fret.. I’ll have my gadgets to give a full report upon my return. :-)

PS. Interesting Factoid:

The travel time/distance between Shanghai-NZ and Cali-NZ is just about the same…and actually slightly better flight deals coming from the States. So those of you stateside who think it’s too far…. umm…. I’m traveling the same amount of hours!! “Being on this side of the world” can be so deceiving!!

. . don’t burn the day. .