The Five and Dime Excursion

In just about 30 hours, I will be boarding a flight to New Zealand for my Five and Dime Birthday Excursion.  Following the lead of a dear friend (who did something similar)  I, too, want to wake up in a different country on my 60th. In this case, I will awake somewhere in the spectacular Southern Alps region. In fact, almost all of my peregrinations will take place on the South Island.

My original plans called for me to wind up at world-renowned Lake Tekapo on my birthday, November 30th.  Surrounded by mountains and far from the glare of city lights, Lake Tekapo's cloud-free skies make it the best place in the Southern Hemisphere to see the night sky.
I envisioned a nighttime hike up to the local observatory where I would luxuriate under a sea of stars.
Perhaps wisdom, enlightenment and a soul-shaking epiphany might visit me!

Perhaps I might get soaked to the bone.

Weather reports now indicate an excellent chance of rain for all the days leading up to and including my birthday.  I will monitor the situation but it's likely I will have to switch gears and come up with something else. This causes me some concern. I suppose I'll figure out some alternative but a memorable evening under the celestial canopy was my Big Plan.  If that falls thru, I might have Nuthin'.
Stay tuned.

Overall, I have no firm objectives for this trip. I'm pretty much gonna punt and see what happens. Vague plans to visit a few remote LOTR sites are on the docket but other than that, I'll be making it up as I go along. There will be a lot of driving. As I told another friend, I'm taking a break from Location Scouting to fly to New Zealand in order to drive around taking photographs. Truly a busman's holiday.

I've been intermittently plowing through guidebooks and I have a broad idea of what I want to see.
I'll start in Queenstown and after a group day trip to Milford Sound and the Fjordlands, I intend to work my way northward by car, perhaps crisscrossing back and forth over the central mountain range through numerous National Parks.  Weather will dictate where I go and when. Periodically, I'll return to civilization along both the west and east coasts, ultimately ending up on the beaches in and around Nelson and Abel Tasman National Park. 
The last day or two will be spent in the capital city, Wellington, on the southern tip of the North Island.

I aim to mix things up, staying in hotels, motels, Air BnBs and even a Hostel now and again.
I hope to meet some of the locals as well as more serious world travelers.
Camping was on the agenda for a while too, until I realized that… I'm gonna be 60!!!
Thus ended that brilliant idea. 

Anyway… I intend to make nightly entries to this blog, so if you are interested, please check in now and again.  
It can't hurt to have some people aware of just where I'm traipsing about on the other side of the Earth.