NZ Planning

I've been doing alot of planning in the last couple of weeks for my trip. So far, my plan is to fly into Auckland around October 10th, spend about a week touring the city, then start making my way south. The capital, Wellington, is on the southern tip of the north island, in a huge harbor. There is a ferry that makes the crossing to Picton in 3 hours, and its supposed to be gorgeous. I got into contact with an American woman who has lived in NZ for 3 years, in a town called Takaka (known for its wine, surfing, and national parks), and she invited me to stay with her for a couple days, so I may head a couple hours up the road and stay there for a while.

After that, I'm going to head down to Christchurch, on the east coast. I'm gonna hang around there for a while, doing parkour and exploring, then head to Castle Hill (previous post) for bouldering for a week or so! Then, I'm going to spend the last part of my trip exploring the Southern Alps, Milford Sound (a UNESCO World Heritage Site), and the glaciated slopes of Mt. Cook and her neighbors. There is a pretty decent exchange rate ($1 US=$1.59 NZ), so I'm on track financially. Plane ticket is about 1200 though, ouch. Yahoo!