Showing posts with label guest. Show all posts
Showing posts with label guest. Show all posts
Thursday, September 14, 2017
Filling in the Blank Pages Guest Bloggers John and Cathy Prepare for New Zealand
Filling in the Blank Pages Guest Bloggers John and Cathy Prepare for New Zealand
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| North Conway, New Hampshire |
We are a couple of semi-retired teachers living in the Philadelphia suburbs. For each of our "big" anniversaries since number 25, we have taken a "big" trip. Ireland and Hawaii were enjoyed as a reward for putting up with each other. This year, for number 40, a really big trip to New Zealand is planned. Why pick New Zealand?
As we mentioned in our last post, In 2002 an exchange student from New Zealand joined the track team that I coached. Her host became ill and had to cancel plans for trips over the summer. My wife and I were planning a rv (pop-up) trip across the country to Berkeley, California to visit our new born grandson and our daughter who was studying at the university there. Since the exchange student was going to be stuck in the Philadelphia suburbs for the summer, we invited her to accompany us. She and her parents agreed.
Admittedly, she saw a lot of interstates. But she did see Mount Rushmore, the Grand Canyon, the Arch in St. Louis--not to mention Northern California and a lot of little towns along the way. In return for showing her our country she gave us a picture book of New Zealand. We fell in love with the scenery and her parents invited us to come there and let them return the favor. So, let the planning begin.
Searching the web for options, we realized that camping over there seemed to be the most logical for us, since we have been RVers here in the states for many years. Various companies offer "campervan" (motorhome) packages, but we liked the options in an Air New Zealand package. The deal included air fare, the campervan, and the ferry crossing from the North to South Islands. Their representative was informative and always available via email.
We added a hotel for our first night in Auckland, the largest city and international airport gateway to our itinerary.
Now we are down to the nuts and bolts. Where, exactly, are we going to visit? What is doable this trip and what must be put off for another time? The father of the student who is now married and has a 2 1/2 year old, sent material that he had accumulated. We are now in the process of filling in the blank pages of a notebook with a date on the top line with all of the adventures that await us.
--John and Cathy
The Lively LIttle Campers are excited to read about all of our guest bloggers adventures as they head to New Zealand on an epic RV adventure. Stay tuned for more.
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Sunday, September 3, 2017
The Lively Little Campers Welcome Their First Guest Bloggers New Zealand Here They Come!
The Lively Little Campers Welcome Their First Guest Bloggers New Zealand Here They Come!
The Lively Little Campers have met several other kindred RV Travelers through this blog and we always love to hear about their adventures on the open road. So when we found out that John and Cathy, two of our long time readers, were heading to New Zealand for an RV trip, we just knew that we had to get in on the action! Since we arent able to hop on a plane and join them we decided to invite them to do some guest blogging about their trip preparations and the trip itself. When the boys get old enough for international RV travel I hope to look back at these posts as a guide for our own New Zealand Adventure. So John and Cathy, welcome to our blog! We wish you safety and joy on your epic adventure!
The Needle in a New Zealand Haystack
Have you ever tried to find a needle in a haystack? How about finding a person in a country of four million plus? That was the task we faced as we tried to find and contact the exchange student that we took on a cross country trip 12 years ago.
I first met Ria at an organization meeting of the track team that I was coaching at the high school where I was teaching. During the track season she became one of the athletes that I depended on. She was more mature than most of the other students since she had already completed high school in New Zealand. On the day that she informed me that her host was ill and could not travel over the summer, it became obvious to me that she could accompany us on a trip to Berkeley, California to visit my daughter and new grandson. She was an excellent traveler and my wife and I came to appreciate her maturity and her stories of New Zealand.
Many years later, once we decided to visit New Zealand, we knew that seeing Ria and meeting her family would be an important part of the adventure. A letter was soon dispatched to her address, but it was returned. She and her parents had moved. She married, but again that address drew a blank. The email address that we had also elicited no response. We were about to give up trying to reunite with our �travel daughter.� She is here, taking a break from hiking in the Grand Canyon.
However, serendipity came to our rescue. Coming home from work one day we found that the ceiling in our �office� had fallen in. What a mess we faced, plaster and dust everywhere. In cleaning the mess, I found a map of New Zealand. On the map, two cities were highlighted. One was the capital of New Zealand, Wellington, a big city. The second was a much smaller town, Cromwell on the South Island. I was so excited, I googled Cromwell and found the New Zealand equivalent of the Chamber of Commerce. I emailed them with my tale of woe, not being able to find my former exchange student. I gave them her name, and what I thought was her married name, Smith. The next day I received an email from Ria�s father!
Imagine how excited we were at finally being able to connect with this young lady that we had not heard from since a thank you note for a wedding gift from 2006. Since then Chris, Ria�s dad, has sent us material and given us much advice about our trip. This has taken a lot of anxiety out of our planning. By the way, I had the last name wrong, really wrong. That was why I could not find her on Facebook or other social media.
We really can�t wait to see Ria, her husband and young son, as well as her mom and dad. This is a picture of Ria from her wedding, she looked so radiant and happy.
A connection had been made across the length of North America and the Pacific Ocean.
Thanks to guest bloggers John and Cathy for sharing this first installment of their epic New Zealand adventure. We look forward to all of their upcoming posts!
Best--The Lively Little Campers
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