Holiday Plans

Now that I have a full-time job and SB is able to take his vacation time, we wanted to have a nice long winter holiday. After tossing around many ideas of holiday locations, we decided on Rarotonga. We contacted our friend who is a travel agent and got pricing for the trip. It seemed affordable but we would have to save the money very quickly (from my first couple of pays) to ensure that we were able to go. Being a teacher has the downside of having to take annual leave during the holidays and it is best to book early. SB's workmate is getting married in Sept/Oct so those holidays weren't an option. July it was.

We then got the email saying that all the cheap flights had gone and we were now looking at NZ$500 more for what amounted to the same holiday. We looked at other holiday options in tropical locales and thought we had decided on one... but it just didn't sit right. SB and I were walking along in a local shopping mall a couple of weeks ago and realised that the thought of this holiday was stressing us out rather than relaxing us. We still want to take our tropical overseas getaway but we're willing to wait.

That still leaves the winter holidays and we would both like to get away - it's been a year since our last proper holiday away together and I will be coming out the other end of a long term (11 weeks, the kids will go crazy!). We wanted somewhere that we wouldn't really be able to do just a weekend, we wanted somewhere where there would be a chance of snow and we wanted somewhere where we would be able to relax for at least part of the time. So...

We're going back! We both loved the pace of Christchurch last time we were down there and with my little sister living down there we have even more reason to go. We're flying in and driving straight up to Hanmer Springs, staying for two nights and then plan to drive back to Christchurch via Kaikoura. We'll then spend another four days in Christchurch, checking out some of the attractions outside the CBD and visiting my sister at the Army Camp out at Burnham. I'm looking forward to it more than I could have hoped and I'm so glad that we made this decision. We won't be sunning ourselves drinking cocktails on the beach in a month and a half but we'll be relaxing together in some beautiful places and that's what matters the most to me.