I can’t believe it’s been 5 years since I last posted on this blog… but I am so thrilled to get to go on another long trip! 2 years ago, I accepted a position at work on a super intense project with one condition, I could take a month-long vacation when it was successful. Well, here I am – nearly 4 weeks ahead of me in New Zealand and Australia with my go-to travel buddy Kathryn and a new friend Justin. Bring on the adventure!

Our trip over was fairly uneventful except it was 24 hours of travel that launched us into the future. In that, I mean it took a 6 hr flight, 4 hour layover, and another 13 hour flight to land in Auckland and we are now 19 hours ahead of home in Chicago.. so basically time travel. 🤓

After a quick trip through customs and shuttle ride to our hotel, we arrived in downtown Auckland’s Central Business District at the SkyCity Grand hotel. Kathryn and I splurged on this first hotel because we knew we wouldn’t sleep much on the flight and would want as much comfort as possible that first night. However, we arrived around 10am and our room wasn’t ready. So, the three of us walked down to the harbor and hopped the first ferry to Devonport, a small island with views of the city. We were not disappointed! After a walk along the coast where we got to see some beautiful homes and enjoy the warm weather, we did a mini-hike up Mt Victoria and were treated to quite the view!

Afterwards, we were able to get into our hotel room, lounge around in robes for a bit, and shower all the travel dirt off. It was glorious! We stopped at a harbor side bar with a deck over the water for a few drinks and then made our way to Cullprit for dinner. Cullprit was amazing! A small, foodie, dim sum place with super creative small plates and incredible flavor combos. After dinner I was pretty exhausted – the long flights and day of exploring catching up with me – but agreed to a final drink at The Ding Dong Lounge (mostly because we had to see what this place was)… well, no surprise, we accidentally found a rock bar with live music! We were 3 of 7 people in the bar, so we made friends with the band, Justin became their drummer, and it became an all request night! Ended up staying for a couple drinks and had a really good time.

Not bad for our first day in New Zealand!