OrdIowPitMsp

Down to 19F this morning, coldest of the season.

Bottomed out at 21.7F at the PWS this morning

We are flying into Auckland, spending a couple days in that area (coromandel peninsula, city center ect...), then heading to Rotorua and Taupo. We are both avid outdoors-people, and will be hiking the northern circuit of Tongariro National Park and tent camping on an active volcano. Driving south from there we plan on checking out some of the wineries around Hasting/Napier, then spending a day in Wellington before hopping on the ferry to the south island. Plan on doing a trip to Tasman National Park for the beaches, and maybe stop over in Marlbourgh. Christchurch is probably where we will spend New Years as we currently have a hotel reserved, and from there drive over the Arthurs Pass region and doing short hikes along the way to Greysmouth. Currently looking at booking a helicopter tour of Franz Joseph or Fox glaciers, there are mountain huts only accessible by helicopter right on the edge of the glaciers that we are looking at spending a night at as well. From there we plan to drive and hike around the Haast pass region, and Fiordland National Park for some more camping, then end our trip with couple days in and around Queenstown, before flying back to the states. Our south island itinerary is less set in stone, as we are still putting things together, but that is a general idea. Definitely want to try and squeeze in penguins in Dunedin if possible. I've seen wild penguins before but my wife hasn't. What i've learned from planning this trip is New Zealand is an incredible country and our trip is only half as long as it properly needs to be.

Just gonna vent real quick. Getting missed to the south 3 times in October really sucks for a weenie like me. Waiting for climo to even things out but I’m sure that will happen while I’m in New Zealand for my honeymoon Dec 22 - Jan 8 you can lock it in. at least it’s been fun to track something