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Ticking off one from the Great New Zealand Journeys - The TranzAlpine Experience

The TranzAlpine is a train journey (considered one among the four of the Great New Zealand Journeys ) from Christchurch to Greymouth, passing through the picturesque Canterbury plains and farms, rivers, valleys, and gorges, further climbing towards the pristine Southern Alps to Arthurs Pass National Park, descending into the rainforests in the West Coast and finishing off at Greymouth town. Greymouth is considered as a base for visits to some of the popular glaciers in South Island. So, our Tranz Alpine timetable looked something like this. We would catch the early morning train from Christchurch railway station, reach Greymouth town by noon, and head back to Christchurch by car, the whole journey taking a good 8-9 hours. The whole deal was in experiencing the train ride, the train itself boasted of cosy carriages, huge panoramic windows, not forgetting the on-board café with exciting items on the menu, and the GPS enabled audio commentary on headphones. I of course was looking f...
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Christmas holiday in Napier

The first time I had heard about 'Napier' was while as a kid I watched cricket matches held in New Zealand, with Father. After that never did I remember seeing any pictures of Napier anywhere or heard anyone mentioning it. So, the only reason my husband and I wanted to visit this place was to see and relate to what we had heard or seen bits of it on TV, and to tick it off our New Zealand check list. :-) Napier is about 500 km from Auckland. We planned a 3 day trip during the Christmas holidays. With lot of luggage, food, and excitement, we started our journey at 7:30 a.m. We are both suckers for road trips, so we had really been looking forward to this trip. This would also be our first long road trip in New Zealand, and also the first one ever with our boy (excluding the flight journey to Auckland from Bangalore). The day was bright and sunny, and mood - a festive and holiday one. We saw quite a bit of traffic even that early. We did not stop until lunch as we wanted to rea...
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On a Horse With a Funny Name

Yes, I love adventures, and sure I love animals. As soon I saw a post in Instagram about horse trekking around Auckland country side, I had to suggest it to husband and friends. Horseback riding for sure was on my list of things to do and I could not let go of this opportunity. And experiencing that in New Zealand would surely be a dream come true. We chose Tasman Horse rides at Helensville for our adventure. The place is about 50 km from Auckland and is blessed with lush green hills and fantastic views of them. A friend and I booked for the hour long horse trek.  We reached the place fifteen minutes prior to the trek, and saw three gorgeous horses. The horses seemed to be getting fed, groomed, and accessorized (I do not know if there's a word for this :O) for the walk. I instantly fell in love with this light brown horse with a white mark on its forehead, and was hoping I could choose that one. We were also hoping they would provide us with those cool long boots these thr...
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Jumping Off a Plane and Staying Alive

Of course now when I think of it, I can only say "Yay! I finally did it." I never thought I could muster the courage to be pushed out from a plane 12,000 ft above the ground and not die from shock or panic. It wasn't that I am scared of heights, but the feeling of being pushed out from so high and from an open plane isn't the best idea and definitely not not-scary-at-all. So after learning that my dive was cancelled at the first location (in Queenstown) because of low clouds, I was quite bummed as I had mentally prepared and planned it out. But then in few minutes I sighed relief that I can now postpone freaking out and can even tell friends "You know I tried, but the weather blah blah blah." :D As we were leaving Queenstown for our next destination the next day and a slot could not be confirmed, the woman at the counter suggested we return during the winters for a better view during the jump. Although I wasn't fully convinced, I did not have much cho...
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The Road is Our Home

Looks like a Motor home trip was what was required for me to return to blogging :-) because I wanted to record this wonderful caravan adventure of five days somewhere other than my mind and Instagram, and I could not think of any other place than a blog to capture the details. Three of us (My husband, a friend of mine, and I, and of course my little boy of 15 months old) were to go on this trip in the Easter holidays. We picked the Motor home from Queenstown. It was almost a brand new, nice looking 6-Seater that had comprised a kitchen, a bathroom, and 4 ready beds. The dishes, mattress and blankets, towels, kitchen equipment, and most other basic domestic supplies had been provided. Our pretty little house looked all set to welcome us well. Our motor home But, as we got inside and tried to settle down, we realized that after having spent the first two days in a large and cozy home in Queenstown, cramming like this wouldn't be easy. But what the heck, we were too eager...
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