Off to My Favorite Land, Far, Far Away

We are off, tomorrow at 6 am, flying to Los Angeles and then tomorrow night, to Auckland and then Wellington New Zealand. It has been a day of packing and trying to remember everything, and accepting that things won’t get done but will upon our return on Dec 3.

One of the things on the itinerary that excited me the most was Nelson Helicopters. We’ll soar in a chopper over mountains and land up there, and hike our way down. We will also take a ferry across the strip of ocean that divides the north and south islands. Sometimes it’s rough but our friend Gabrielle assured us that sometimes it’s not. An adventure, no doubt!

The trip is full of meetings with ordinary and interesting Kiwis, and Cindy will have a full day of activities visiting with Maori craftspeople. I’ll meet some journalists and we’ll both bike and kayak quite a bit while on the South Island.

There isn’t a place that I can think of that makes me more excited than the land of the Kiwis. Follow along and meet them with me. This blog will also be featured on the newzealand.com website where our updates will be posted under ‘latest features’ beginning on Monday.