Category — New Zealand

Today’s dream is for Mr. Rojo. He is a well-traveled guy. When he was a kid, his parents took him all around the world from Saudi Arabia, Europe and Asia. So he thinks his adventure day is over. Too bad he is married to me because I will be dragging him all around the world with the kids again. :) Recently, I asked him.. where do you want to go the most? It took him a good long 10 minutes to come up with the answer – New Zealand.

Why New Zealand you ask? Why not? It’s one of the most beautiful place in the world. It’s the setting of the epic movies – Lord of the Ring Trilogy. And you can guess, we are a big fan of the books and the movies.

I don’t know much about New Zealand but I know we can’t possibly see the whole country in 2 weeks (our typical long vacation time). So today dream trip will be all about LOTR tour.

Staying:

OH.. We can’t fly across the pacific ocean and not stay at the Hobbit Motel. How cool will that be to stay in this cute hotel. The hotel is in the Woodlyn Park near Waitomo about 2 hours from Auckland and actually there are other off-the-wall accommodation like Train Motel (which Mr. Z might try to convince us to stay there) and Plane Motel. What a cool place!

I also dream about renting a camper van and drive around the North Island. But with limited time, we will see if that’s doable.

By Rengber

Doing:

When travel with kids, we have to find attractions that also kid-friendly and nothing will scream kid-friendly other than the Kelly Tarlton’s Antarctic Encounter & Underwater World where they can enjoy the underwater world of the Southern sea marine lifes and the Antarctic’s encounter of the penguin colony.

We are dreaming of a visit to Waikato where we begin the journey to the Middle Earth. Ok.. I feel a bit geeky now.. First stop will be Matamata home of the Hobbiton and a tour of the remaining actual set from LOTR movies. We will check out Waitomo Glowworm Caves taking the journey underground to this unique deep limestone shaft illuminated by thousand of tiny creatures that glow.

Then we will spend a day on a hot water beach at Kawhia Harbour in our own newly digged spa pool. Next stop 2 hours to the East is Rotorua – home of the active volcano and Maori village. Kids will enjoy the sight of geyser shooting up the sky and we hope for a Polynesia Spa experience.

Next up, the capital city of New Zealand – Wellington. We are dreaming of visiting several filming sites from the movie and sightseeing around the city.

And if we have more time, we dream even bigger of heading to the South Island and visit Queenstown. The Nomad Safaris seems to be a good choice for the adventure tour for the LOTR fan like us. A half day tour on the jeep to see the magnificent location from the movie set. What else can we dream for!

Now that’s my dream. Check out other travelers’ dreams at Mother of All Trips.