The house is cleaned, the items are checked off the packing list, and the last bag is packed. We’re about to head off to the airport on what is about to be a 24-hour travel time to make our way to Sydney, Australia! G’day mate!
We’ll be departing at 4:23 Nashville (central) time on Saturday March 30th and arriving at 8:45 am Monday April 1st in Sydney. You can start calling us time travelers (that’s a bad joke, I know), as we will be crossing the international date line on this trip and jumping one day ahead. We’ll only be getting a few hours of Sunday March 31st, 2024 (Happy birthday, Aunt Carolyn!)
Which brings up the time difference! We’ll be traveling across various places on this adventure, including Sydney, Cairns, Queenstown, Chirstchurch, and Auckland. These are all within one to three timezones of each other but about 15-18 hours ahead of US central timezone. So while you might be reading this at 6pm on a Sunday, it’ll be 12pm on Monday for Asa and I in New Zealand. The furthest we’ve been so far is 14 hours ahead (Tokyo, Japan), but we’ll hit a new distance on this trip.
I should probably stop talking about time and math, that’s a bit of the boring part.
Let’s talk itinerary! We’ll be spending the next four weeks in Australia and New Zealand! We’ll be starting in..
- Sydney, Australia: A short 36-hour recovery time from our flight travels. We hope to check off some major landmarks like the Sydney Opera House and Darling Harbour.
- Cairns, Australia: Situated in the northern Queensland Australia, we’ll look to relax and enjoy some nice some weather to start our trip. Great Barrier Reef snorkeling, too!
- Queenstown, New Zealand: Our first stop in Middle Earth, we’ll spend a few days in this mountainous town and look to start exploring New Zealand!
- Christchurch, New Zealand: We’ll drive our way towards the largest city on the South Island (New Zealand is made up of two islands) and plan to eat some oysters, rock climb, and hike in the Canterbury Region
- Marlborough, New Zealand: The heart of the New Zealand wine country. Enjoy a glass of Sauvignon Blanc with us in spirit!
- Wellington, New Zealand: After crossing the Cook Strait, we’ll spend a day in Wellington, home of WETA Workshop.
- North Central Region, New Zealand: We’ll be staying for 5 days in this region and driving out to explore Hobbiton, natural hot springs, glow worm caves, and a hike across the setting for Mt. Doom (Lord of the Rings fans will know this!)
- Auckland, New Zealand: We’ll be wrapping our trip up with a few days spent in the New Zealand capital, taking in some city sites and preparing for our return back to the states.
I hope to keep this up to date every few days, so check back if you have a minute and we hope you enjoy following along on our Australia and New Zealand adventure!
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