Kia Ora, New Zealand!

Every good journey begins in the middle of the night...like when we left our cozy home at 3:20am to race to the airport to catch our first of two domestic flights.

(There's our hometown! Bye, house!!!)

(Lil Sis, the intrepid baby, ready for traveling from Spokane) 

Spokane to Salt Lake City to San Francisco took ALL morning. Luckily, we got a hotel room near the airport for our 9 hour stop in San Francisco. That was definitely worth the hotel points. Baths, naps, meals and quiet outside the terminals...it was the perfect way to break things up for the kids.

(Staying distracted and non raging during our domestic flights)

To be completely honest, there were so many times en route to NZ where I was thinking "This is insane." "Never again." "We should have stayed home!" It's not that the trip down went badly; it actually went extremely well. The girls were slightly antsy on our domestic flights, but the 13 hour flight across the pacific, the one I was dreading, turned out to be just fine. Big Sis ended up sleeping 6-7 hours and Lil Sis slept about 8 hours in her bassinet they provided. But from 6:30am Friday to 11:00pm Sunday, I only slept maybe 2-3 hours. THAT is why the journey was hard at times! Otherwise, our kids proved to be fantastic little globe trekkers. But, books, toys, food and a charged iPad helped immensely!!! (No, I never really slept in San Fran. Too much adrenaline pumping in my veins!)

(Happy on the long flight.)

Once we arrived in Auckland, we went through customs, baggage claim and biosecurity in less than 20 mins. It was amazing and probably an all time record for getting through international customs. It was 6:30am and we were ready to take on the day...but unfortunately, we had to wait around the airport until 8:30 to catch a bus to the camper van rental agency. We roamed the halls of the Auckland airport, keeping the kids happy with snacks and little videos of themselves on our iphones (Big Sis loved watching videos of herself taken at our neighborhood park and our backyard. Familiarity helps!) 

(Welcome to New Zealand)

When we made it to the camper van agency, they got us situated as fast as they could. (The staff were so great and accommodating!) We spent a couple of hours in the parking lot unpacking our stuff, getting the car seats set up and making it all as comfy as possible. The girls were tired and getting a little impatient, but again, food, toys, books, ipad, saved us! 

(Lil Sis inspects one of the camper van beds)

We spent the rest of the day grocery shopping, getting situated at our campsite and waiting for Melanie's arrival at midnight. After playing at the playground, dinner and baths, I crashed with the kids at about 7pm. It felt WONDERFUL to sleep! 

(After nearly 60 hours non stop, this was a must) 

It was so surreal and yet also normal feeling to be back in New Zealand. It holds a special place in my heart, and I couldn't wait to head out of Auckland and onto to fresh adventures with my family...but first, Melanie had to catch up! More on that next time! 

Family Adventures Ahead!

New Zealand, May 2015 

(Daddy and Big Sis playing in the stream while mommy holds Lil Sis during a morning nap on the beach) 

It’s been almost a week since we got back from our epic New Zealand Adventure. I had hoped to blog about our journey in real time, but ultimately realized that being fully present for my family and a super early bedtime trumped blogging into the ground. So, a retrospective blog it is! 

In these humble posts I hope to share the good, the bad and the ugly of international travel with our toddlers. Overall, our trip went extremely well, but it wasn’t without its momentary meltdowns, for kids and parents alike! Needless to say, it was a huge learning experience. I want to share what we learned in the hopes that it might inspire other parents to take the plunge and do the unthinkable…travel with children!

Colin and I both have a bit of wanderlust running through our veins. But after having two kids back to back, I started believing that once you have kids it’s "game over". No more travel. No more adventures. Of course, we have done day trips and small road trips, along with tons of cross country travel to visit family in Texas, but I really thought the “big trips” were over and gone. But Colin has always remained in the mindset of “With savings, a good budget* and a lot of determination, traveling with kids IS possible."

After going to New Zealand for our honeymoon, Colin always talked about going back. I remained dubious! We did an RV road trip to the Canadian Rockies in the summer of 2014 (the inspiration for my blog) and had the most wonderful time. It was great practice for a similar trip we dreamed of taking in New Zealand. Then one day in March of 2015, we decided to dive in and purchase tickets. People told us we were brave, but I know they really meant we were crazy!

We are home now, having traveled across the world with our two babies. We did it and never misplaced a child or our sanity in the process. I call that success! Check back here for more installments about our epic family adventure. Oh! And a very special thanks to my sister, Melanie, for going on the adventure with us! 

*(There is no denying that money is a huge aspect of being able to pull off any kind of travel. This is where putting savings into a travel budget becomes vital because you will never save up enough for a big family trip by throwing spare change into a jar on the kitchen shelf. Maybe I’ll get Colin to write a post about budgeting. It's definitely his expertise, not mine! :)