Bucket List - New Zealand

I have been saving for the past two years for this one. This bucket list is an expensive one hence a proper financial plan is vital. It has been a tradition that I will always travel with the whole bunch of my family members for overseas vacation. We would normally select the best date that can accommodate all of us at least 6 to 12 months earlier. My 17 year-old sat for his SPM exam hence we decided to travel after the exam i.e early Dec with hopes and prayers that no unexpected event happened, things like leaked questions or natural disaster that might affected the exam and they have to resit some papers during the dates that we have blocked for the holidays. Alhamdulillah, the exam was smooth sailing albeit a few rumours that there would be a resit for History papers.

After a year of saving and hundred hours of Googling, we took the first step by purchasing the flight tickets in March 2016, 9 months before travelling date through Emirates after quite an extensive research on the best route and preferred airline. Juggling between making sure my kids especially the 17 year old coping with his studies, visiting those in boarding schools, arranging extra classes during school holidays and doing loads and loads of researching of the itinerary, budget and at the same time still being productive in the office, it was a vacation that everyone looking forward to.

We decided to do North and South Island trips in 2 weeks. North by renting an MPV and South by renting a motorhome(caravan). Motorhome vacation is quite 'alien' to us in our home country and knowing that the New Zealand roads are very different from others (from our blog surfing), we decided to get a ground arrangement for the motorhome South Island's trip.

Auckland International Airport