We flew into Auckland to check off one of our longest running bucket list items – the US National Parks. I know what you might be thinking, why are you flying to New Zealand to complete the US National Parks? And yeah, sort of weird.
But to make a long story short, a few years ago I researched the easiest way to get to American Samoa National Park and realized that you could fly through Hawaii to Pago Pago and stay for a few days (but it’s a small island and the flights are expensive) OR you could fly into New Zealand and check off a few countries while hitting up the last national park.
Hence, the trip was booked and a “dream” was finalized. Some of you reading this blog may have met us at different points along the way – but from the very beginning, one of our park adventures, or maybe just knew that this was something we were passionate about.
It feels a little bittersweet that this is the end of the road. The question we get asked the most of course, “What’s next?” I’m laughing thinking about this because I already know our reputation procedes us – and you’re right. We aren’t going to be sitting home savoring a job well done.
I think we will switch to more event based travel – the Olympics, Oktoberfest, Hot Air Balloon Festival, etc. I personally want to get to every country, yes, every country. Even the “scary” ones (which I don’t buy into). Maybe hit up every Disney park, who knows?!
The other extra special part about this trip is that our best friends Emily and Mark are joining us. I’ll give credit where it’s due that Emily mailed me a postcard from Yellowstone NP back in 5th grade of Morning Glory Pool and that’s what made me realize the world was so much bigger. Sparking a curiosity and love that would turn me into who I am today – and I’m grateful that I found Andy, who I got to share this journey with.
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Once we landed in Auckland we rented a 2 bedroom apartment for the few days leading up to the cruise. We had been to Auckland before on a different cruise, but Emily and Mark hadn’t. We thought it would be easier to fly in the weekend before to ensure if there were any baggage delays that they would have time to catch up.
We didn’t have any issues and had an easy time navigating the Auckland airport. Our Airbnb was in a prime location and was easy to walk to everything. We had an amazing dinner the first night and were excited when Emily and Mark flew in the next day.
After they landed and freshened up we decided that we were going to take a ferry over to Waiheke Island for some wine tasting. We had been given recommendations to go to Mudbrick – and since we didn’t have a car we decided that since we could walk we would go to Cable Bay since it was next door.
Both wineries were great – and the views were incredible. When we had visited 2 years prior, the wines had been good, but we were with the ship’s excursion team and the experiences were only okay. This was a completely different experience and we ended up buying some wine. I’m still not sure how we’re going to get it home. But that’s a problem for a different day!
The remaining days in Auckland were relatively low key due to Andy having to work so we just had some fantastic dinners with Emily and Mark in the evenings.
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