NZAU New Zealand & Australia

Our new adventure takes us to New Zealand for three weeks, then to Australia for five weeks. Much of our time since the Holidays has been spent planning and packing, though if you asked us what our exact plans are, the answer would be, “Dunno, exactly.” Roughly, we’re flying from BWI to Auckland NZ, cycling through the North Island to Wellington, ferrying to the South Island and flying out of Christchurch to Melbourne.

In Australia, we’re hoping to visit Tasmania, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane (and the Gold and Sun Coasts) and the Great Barrier reef. Flying a bit blind, so to speak, but we’re building on our recent upper Midwest tour and what we’ve learned about New Zealanders and Australians, and we expect we’ll be just fine.

I’m writing this as we are about to land in Auckland, excitedly so. We found out three days ago that Dana’s name on her ticket didn’t match her passport. We booked through AARP’s Expedia Travel site, and lesson learned, won’t be doing that again. What should have been a routine re-issue of a ticket, turned into three days, Dana spending 20 hours on the phone, and AI and people coming to completely different opinions about whether it was a real problem or not. Air New Zealand said “Ticket must match passport.” Anyway, it all worked out in the end and no one looked twice at our tickets or passports.

Our very good friends Kathy and Dave were so kind as take us to the airport and keep our car at their house for the duration. We had a lovely evening and a great sendoff and everything went fine at the airport. Much more to come!