New Adventures in New Zealand – Our plans for 2015!

In less than three weeks time, we move to New Zealand for a year – a new country, new continent, new life for us after 10 years in England! It hasn’t hit yet that we are leaving, even though our house is on the market for rent, our things being sold or given away, our rooms piled with boxes and suitcases. Maybe once it hits, I will reflect more on how we feel about moving and starting a new life. Here I share of the new exciting things we plan to do in New Zealand in 2015 as part of Weekly Photo challenge: New

‘snowboarding’ on plastic sledge on our local killamarsh ‘winter resort’ 🙂

Winter sports is something that is completely new for us. I don’t do too well with the cold and always opt for warmer travel destinations. 10 years in England, and we have never been skiing! We have been to the Swiss Alps and Innsbruck, Austria famous for skiing holidays but we have been there only in the summer.  We all are looking forward to skiing and/or snowboarding for the first time during winter in New Zealand. The country has several areas for skiing and snowboarding, on both islands. Whakapapa and Turoa are the only commercial resorts on the North Island; Queenstown, Wanaka and Christchurch are the top locations in the South Island to access the mountains. It’s great knowing we don’t have to fly and go on a skiing holiday! We can have it right by our doorstep – or atleast just a few hours drive away, can make weekend trips this winter (our summer, it will be a while before I can get used to thinking June- August as winter)

Saw Glaciers during drive through Grossglockner Alpine Road

Our first Glacier sighting!

Father Daughter moment

New glaciers –  The largest glacier in New Zealand, the Tasman Glacier, is 27km long and covers an area of 101 square kilometres, sitting below our highest mountain – Mount Cook. There are many stunning glaciers, most located near the Main Divide in the Southern Alps in the South Island. We look forward to visiting several of them once we are there!

New activities this past summer – learning to snorkel in the open sea. This was in Pula, Croatia

New water sports – recently Shahaar has been a on Scuba Diving activity with 3rd Killamarsh Scout and he absolutely loved it! Looking forward to learning to Scuba Dive in New Zealand and for me getting my refreshers course as I last dived years ago. So looking forward to living by the coast as it has always been our dream to live by water. We all watched Whale Rider (awesome movie) last week which got us even more excited about going 🙂 I am just completing a Marine Biology PhD and our conversations and artwork at home revolves around marine life a lot. we are all super psyched about seeing whales and dolphins in the wild!

New country for all of us in 2014, Croatia was one of our favourites in all the 11 countries we visited this year!

We visited 6 new countries, 11 total in 2014 – Croatia and Morocco were our all time favourites and we wish we could have spent more time in each of these countries. Austria, Slovenia, China and Liechtenstein were also new and once again we didn’t get to spend enough time in each. One of our resolutions for 2015 is to do more slow travel – 1 year in New Zealand sounds ideal for doing that. We are also going to Thailand(new for the kids) and Fiji and Samoan Islands (new for all of us) in 2015, followed by Road Trip around Australia in 2016!

We will miss the lovely English countryside – this was taken during our travels in the Lake District. But there definitely won’t be a lack of sheep in New Zealand. We have been told there are more sheep than people!

Look forward to visiting new vineyards and tasting new wines from New Zealand!

There are 8 wine growing regions in New Zealand. We will be based in Auckland which has around 100 vineyards and wineries! The region is home to some of New Zealand’s oldest established vineyards, with vines first planted in Northland in 1819, and is best known for its Bordeaux style wines – mouth-filling Cabernet Sauvignons and complex Chardonnays. They say you need at least three days to explore the wineries of Auckland, we have a year 🙂

Hiking in National Parks is one of our favourite past times

Peak District National Park in lovely fall colours

A friend had mentioned New Zealand is exactly the kind of place for us..we are all about the outdoors, we love hiking and exploring the wider countryside. We have been to several national parks in England, Wales and Scotland over the last 10 years here. Exploring New Zealand’s walking and hiking trails and seeing the country’s outstanding natural beauty is something we are REALLY looking forward to!

Europe Lonely planet was our most used book during travels last 10 years.

Our newest Lonely Planet Book which we will be using a LOT for the new year ahead!

Our Pinterest Board is filling up with wonderful images and blog posts on what other travellers have experienced in New Zealand. Have a look, very pleasing to the eye 🙂 

In my last post of 2014, I wrote about Life happening as you make travel plans and while all this has been super exciting, we are aware and open to all plans changing as life events occur! But isn’t planning and anticipation part of the wonderful process? It always has been for us 🙂 Looking forward to a year of new adventures, making new friends, having new experiences and welcoming old friends and family to our new home in Auckland, New Zealand!

Posted as part of Our World Tuesday and Travel Photo Thursday