The trip of a lifetime. But then, I have been lucky enough to have multiple such experiences…
L: Wendy and Nick on the Abel Tasman Great Walk. Middle: Nick and Wendy at the Hokatika River colored by glacial “flour” that normally turns it turquoise, but on a rainy 2023 Christmas Day left the water cloudy. R: Nick and Wendy on the Whanganui River Great “Walk” that is a 136 kilometer canoe paddle down the Whanganui River gorge.
This is a travelogue stolen from the emails I sent home to our family and friends, a group that kept growing as we kept traveling. As these emails were sent to folks who know us all too well, there are a lot of names and references to family along the way. Just consider them your family also, and plug them into your circle of family and friends.
Although the trip was 100 days…it was really a journey of more than a year. I started the planning process in 2022 and started watching for “deals” and cheap flights towards the beginning of 2023. Once our flights were nailed down, the planning started in earnest, as we looked at where we wanted to be and generally when. As far as I was concerned, the journey had begun.
Surfing the internet, falling down many rabbit holes, referencing the National Geographic maps we had invested in and mounted to a board, our trip took on some hard dates and places.
We decided to take advantage of three of the eleven New Zealand Great Walks. Being seventy plus, we chose some tour companies to guide us and thus make the Great Walks do-able for the age-challenged: Abel Tasman, Milford Track, and the Whanganui River (not a hike, but considered one of the “Great Walks.”
Each of the tour companies went beyond expectations in providing us with comfortable accommodations, great food, and even greater fellow travelers. [Please note that we accepted nothing in return for our compliments to these companies!] But those tours were only about twenty-five days of the 100 days we were on the road. The other seventy-five days unraveled at their own pace and into their own adventures.
Having a life partner who is an excellent traveling companion makes it all so easy, once I convinced him not to hide from the camera as the grandkids wanted to see him.
We will see where in the world our next 100 day adventure will take us.
~Wendy (and Nick)
Bits and Pieces:
Photographs:
Most of the photographs in this book were taken by Wendy Platt Hill with an iPhone 14 Pro. Most of the Milford Track photos were taken by my husband, Nick Hill on his Pixel 7, and the ones of Nick on that trail were taken by his brother on his phone.
Book design:
The book was designed by the ever-talented and extremely modest design firm of Platt & Company…in other words, me. Having designed books for many clients when Platt & Company was active, and as editor and designer of a quarterly magazine, it was fun…and frustrating…to have myself as a client.
Travel Planning:
I swear the planning of a trip is almost as good as the travel. The internet does allow you to research to your heart’s content. Actually plunking down the money to an unknown company across the globe was scary…but reading reviews, cross-checking claims and sometimes even phoning the company, worked. All of our tours exceeded our hopes. And kudos to Airbnb as all of our stays were as advertised and gave us an extra peek at New Zealand culture.
Being in shape for travel:
For about six months before our trip, I started walking two plus miles every day. It helped, as did the walking sticks that I used to negotiate uneven terrain and long downhills. A reminder from my son who is a TSA officer: walking sticks need to be in your checked bag, so make sure you have a suitcase that can fit the folded up length of your sticks!
Stats:
In the 100 days, I took exactly 3,000 photographs. Only 230 of them are in this travelogue. Phew!
Day O of 100: New Zealand, Fiji, Hawaii
November 3, 2023
Nick and I will be off to the southern hemisphere for about 3 ½ months. Before Nick and I met, New Zealand was on both of our bucket lists…and after a few prior attempts, a global pandemic, etc., we are finally doing this! We will leave our house on November 8 and return around Feb. 17, 2024.
Before we get to New Zealand, we will take advantage of our stopover in Fiji and spend a week there, exploring the islands.
We are extremely lucky that Nick’s brother and his wife have offered us a bed at their home in Auckland plus the use of their car for the entire time we travel in NZ! His brother emigrated to New Zealand over 25 years ago and raised his (then) young children there. Those children are now adults who are spread out over the North and South islands and thus we have more family to visit!
Speaking of family, Nick’s brother in Portland will be joining us in the beginning of January so that Nick and he can hike the famous Milford Track over the Southern Alps. While the hikers are off, I will hole up in an Airbnb on Lake TeAnu and work those five days to get the Spring 2024 issue of the Humboldt Historian magazine ready for the printer. His brother will remain with us until we leave New Zealand in the first week of February to go to Hawaii.
In Honolulu, we will visit my old friend and his husband from UC Berkeley.. We will have a couple of days with them, then head to Maui where we will spend a few days with our oldest daughter’s family for a few days of their Hawaiian vacation. Then back to the SF Bay Area and shortly thereafter back to Humboldt.
I am going to keep some sort of travelogue with photos.
Kia ora, (Maori for hello, goodbye, thank you)
~Wendy (and Nick)