Itinerary that Dreams are Made of...literally

If you are even remotely like me, you daydream of various St. Somewheres and limitless time to explore. I would go so far as saying there isn't a day that goes by that I'm not thinking about a future adventure of some sort.

And so, it caught me by surprise when it came time to be serious about planning this sabbatical that I absolutely could not figure it out. This has been an unending struggle for all of 2017 and some months of 2016. Also, just a couple of years ago, I offered my brother a free trip to Anywhere for his 40th and he struggled to pick a place... and that surprised me. Little could I have predicted that in short time, I'd find myself in his shoes. (By the way, I chronicled that adventure earlier in the life of this blog, should you care.)

What began as Europe for sure with possible tack-on's to tangential places has ended up on the far side of the world. My brilliant husband finally reasoned that we could go to Europe in shorter stints (that didn't require a sabbatical) but couldn't go to the farthest ends of the world without the longer time period to work with. And just like that, Australia and New Zealand were on the map.

Interestingly, although I have always wanted to go to both places and secretly know, in advance, that part of my very soul is likely waiting for me in New Zealand (can we have spirit countries?) at first, I wasn't any more excited about this plan. I've finally realized, it's because it's just too unreal.

We've been cobbling together an itinerary. There are a few things left to figure out so there are placeholders for now. But, here's what we're expecting to happen. We're also expecting life to happen over these 50 days...so we'll see where reality lands.

Day	Location	Getting There	Plans
1	Honolulu	Plane	Buy stuff
2	Waikiki Beach
3	Honolulu Cruise terminal	taxi	Go aboard
4	At sea	boat
5	At sea	Boat
6	At sea	Boat
7	At sea	Boat
8	At sea	Boat
9	Pago Pago, American Samoa	Boat
10	International Dateline	Boat
11	Suva, Fiji	Boat	See Dramea!
12	Lautoka, Fiji	Boat
13	At Sea	Boat
14	Lifou Islem New Caledonia	Boat
15	Ile Des Pins, New Caledonia	Boat
16	Noumea, New Caledonia	Boat
17	At Sea	Boat
18	At sea	Boat
19	Sydney, Australia	Boat
20	At sea	Boat
21	Melbourne, Australia	Boat
22	At sea	Boat
23	Tasmania, Australia	Boat
24	At sea	Boat
25	At sea	Boat
26	Cruise Milford Sound	Boat
27	Cruise Fjordland National Park	Boat
28	Dunedin, New Zealand	Boat
29	Christchurch, New Zealand	Boat
30	Picton, New Zealand	Boat	Wineries!
31	Wellington, New Zealand	Boat
32	Napier, New Zealand	Boat
33	Rotorua, New Zealand	Boat	Kayaking and glow worm caves!
34	Auckland, New Zealand	Boat	Waiheke Island
35	Auckland, New Zealand	Boat	Exit the cruise ship and find our “land legs” again
36	Auckland, New Zealand	Land!
37	Adelaide, Australia	Plane
38	Adelaide, Australia		Wineries!
39	McLaren Vale, Australia		Wineries!
40	Barossa Valley, Australia		Wineries!
41	Brisbane, Australia	plane
42	Brisbane, Australia
43	Great Barrier Reef	Plane	Stand in awe
44	Great Barrier Reef		Be amazed
45	Brisbane, Australia	Plane
46	Brisbane, Australia
47	Brisbane, Australia
48	Honolulu	Plane
49	Honolulu
50	DFW	Plane	Jet lag