We left Chicago on Sunday Oct 26 and arrived in Auckland on Tuesday Oct 28 (crossing the International Date Line). New Zealand is southeast of Australia and very close to Antartica. We flew from Chicago to Los Angeles, LA to Fiji and Fiji to Auckland. It was about 36 hours from home to the hotel due to long layovers and flight delays.

We spent the first two nights in Auckland at the Auckland Hilton to relax from the long flights and get over our jet lag.

Then we rented an RV or as they call it a CamperVan and drove around the islands. The red line shows our path down and the blue line shows our path back up to Auckland.

Our trip was cut short when we arrived in Wellington on the way back, so we had to take the fastest route possible back to Auckland. We were supposed to come home on Nov. 24 but we had to leave on Nov. 18 due to the death of Al's sister.

To give you an idea of the distances: Auckland to Wellington is only 400 miles but it takes over 12 hours due to country roads. Te Anau in the South island to the Picton Ferry is 600 miles and a little over 17 hours time with much more mountainous roads than the North.

There is a Ferry between the two islands - Wellington/Picton - that takes about 3 1/2 hours.

Click on the map to go to the pictures page.