New Zealand: Getting to Our Destination...

New Zealand was the most beautiful place I have ever been in my life. Within it's beauty, I found little spots hidden here and there were I could have stood in awe forever. I will share these sweet spots through out my blog posts, but just know, nothing I document will give justice to the astounding beauty that I witnessed.

We left Dallas on July 1st and flew to San Francisco. From here we flew 12 or so hours to Auckland, New Zealand on the North Island. From Auckland, we took a short flight over to the South Island and landed in a sweet little town called Nelson.


Headed to Auckland



We were picked up in Nelson and toured the town with our driver for the morning and most of the afternoon. We started by getting coffee (and a cookie for me) at a local coffee shop. I got a local favorite called Flat White- coffee with milk. I don't like coffee, but it I have to say, it wasn't too bad. This was one of many chocolate chip cookies I had in New Zealand, and they all look like this...aren't they cute!?


This sweet little wall art greeted us at the Nelson Airport


Sightseeing







After coffee, we toured the town a bit then headed to one of my favorite little stops we made. We went to the original Jens Hansen Jewelry store. In case you didn't know, this is the jeweler who designed all the jewelry for The Lord of the Rings movies. Not only this, but Micah bought me a beautiful piece from the shop!


Replica of the ring in The Lord of The Ring movies- it was really heavy!




All this amazing work done from this tiny little jewelry workshop

From here, we headed to an art museum called WOW. It was full of local art, wearable art and classic cars. We were't allowed to take pictures of the wearable art, but trust me... it was truly inspiring to this little artist heart of mine!


A little bitty classic car

For lunch, we visited a local winery called Waimea. We started with a wine tasting of reds and whites. Most of the wines were really good, but their Sauvignon Blanc was my favorite. We had a light and delicious salmon dish for lunch before we headed to the 'airport'.







This airport was way out in the country and the runways were grass... we were also surround by green hills and mountains... prettiest little airport I have ever been to! We met our helicopter pilot who took us to our first real destination were we met up with the rest of the group and I found my first favorite spot in the whole world...


Nature can't get much better than this