Chapter 1: Preparing for the dreams
Getting Started
This is it. A dream come true.
Getting to New Zealand has been a long lasting bug in my mind, that I need to get there. After all, there are not many other places on Earth as far you can get from Finland as New Zealand is, so this is a must do. This has been one of my dreams for a long time, but especially for Anu it has been The Dream of a lifetime. We were discussing early 2017 that we should make it happen, and here we are, it is happening. It is only about deciding to do it, you know. Nothing more. Dreams are made to be realized.
When we started throwing ideas around about getting to New Zealand, we knew that this trip would be different. At that time (early 2017) we were expecting our son to enter this world as Anu was pregnant. Edvin was going to be born in the summer of 2017 and we had decided we would go in the beginning of 2018. We agreed we wouldn’t let Edvin’s birth get in the way of dreams to come true. Vice versa. This would in fact bring a really nice new spice to the adventure as we would be three people taking on this adventure.
By the time we would embark on this trip, Edvin would be roughly six months old. This also brought a bit more consideration into the planning. The first matter to consider was that we really couldn’t plan or book anything until we would know that everything would go well with Edvin’s first months and that he would be good to travel. So, we didn’t book anything in advance. Well, that is nothing new for me as I usually travel unplanned. I don’t even book flights much beforehand so I was down with the idea of waiting. Anu might have been a bit more anxious to book something unless we didn’t have this situation with Edvin, so we didn’t rush. She has gotten used to the way I travel, I guess, but I have also tried to learn a bit of planning along the way. Not succeeding much, but I am trying. Well, a few months passed as Edvin started to learn life and we started to see that he is cool and everything is great with him. No sicknesses, nothing. A totally healthy kid. So, it was time to take action.
Booking
The time to take action came actually roughly a week before departure. 9 days before, to be exact. We would leave Finland on February 12th of 2018 and we booked our flights on February 3rd. Yes, we booked for an 8 week trip for three people (2 adults, 1 toddler) 9 days before intended leaving. Here I think it’s important to explain something to you, since this will be a common way of traveling for me. I have 20 years of experience in extensive traveling (as a grown up, we have traveled with my family quite a lot from an early age, so extensive traveling experience is more than 30 years altogether) and I have noticed that it really makes very little difference (what comes to prices) whether you book your flights a year before, six months before, three months before or 3 days before. In fact most of the times prices are more expensive when you book your flights a lot in advance. Plus that then you are fixed with your flights no matter what, with no (or very little) freedom to make adjustments to your plans as your travel time approaches. But I do know that if everyone would do their traveling like I do, the system wouldn’t work like that, but as I know 95-99% of people book flights earlier than I do, the system works this way. In fact, if everyone of you, who reads this blog post, would start doing how I do it, the system still wouldn’t even shake, so the mass for early booking is still there and the late booking method would still work and you would be fine, with good deals in your hands. So, I highly recommend to try booking a week before you go to save in costs, if you have the nerves - at least I suggest giving it a shot, you might find yourself entering the adventure of your life ;)
As we didn’t have any flights booked until 9 days before our departure, we were still able to make adjustments to our travel plan. One of the main ideas we were bouncing around was to get to New Zealand, spend most of our holiday (altogether 8 weeks) there and on the way back to Finland, stop in USA for a couple of weeks. But, when the time came to book the flights, we found out that two of the people we would go to meet (among others as well) might not even be in US or be available, plus that the return through US would be roughly 1500 euros (total from all of us) more expensive than returning over Asia, so we decided that we would get to Bali instead on the way back for a couple of weeks since that has been also one of the dreams for both of us. We could make that dream come true on this trip and it would be a convenient stop. And wouldn’t cost us much more than getting directly back to Finland from Auckland, so we took the deal. And here as well, still a day before we booked the flights, this combination of flights would still have costed us 500 euros more, but the next day it was 500 less, so it was worthwhile waiting a day more. But enough about the booking timetable vs prices at this moment. I can tell you a lot more in another post how I do it if you want. Just ask me.
So, we got our flights booked. Helsinki-Doha-Auckland and Auckland-Bali-Doha-Helsinki. 6 weeks in New Zealand and 2 weeks in Bali. What next? Well, what to do in both locations. As you can expect, we had pretty much no plans. I usually travel with an adventure spirit. As an international adventurer I am. And that’s what international adventurers do. They adventure. In our case, many of the tips and guides we had read and heard said that planning is a really important thing when traveling with a little toddler. Well, it doesn’t really resonate with us. So, we didn’t plan much. Only thing we planned and booked for New Zealand was an accommodation for the first four nights. That we booked two days before our departure, February 10th. We had also agreed that it would be my responsibility to book us a car for the trip. But let’s get to that later.
The Big Plan
The big plan was to travel from Auckland (in the north part of the north island) to the southern tip of the south island by car, and drive back to Auckland (there are some interesting turns in this as well as we get further into the adventure in the posts) to fly to Bali, but no details were planned. We had only some ideas what could be cool to experience, but nothing specific. We would trust that the plan would find us along the way. That is hugely exciting and leaves good room for surprises. After all, best things in life come unexpected, so why spoil the possibility for them to appear. In fact we had very little knowledge about New Zealand in details. We just knew it in our hearts that we need to get there. Everything else we would figure out along the way.
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Now, as this is the first post on this site and project, I am finishing it here. This is a process where I will learn what would be a good length and structure of the posts, if I should insert pictures here and if, how much. Because of this, I would appreciate every feedback possible. I want to learn how to improve with the posts and for this I need your help. I need also feedback about the site. I want to make it as fuctional for the user as possible. Looking forward to hearing from you :)
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Tip of the chapter.
If you usually plan and book everything well in advance, fix yourself time for a holiday, don't book anything, make a rough plan where you want to go (destination country is usually good, as you might need a visa etc., but direction on earth is also good if you are adventurous enough), wait until it's a week or less before your intended holiday and start looking into options. It an experiment where you might find yourself on an adventure you never imagined having and you might be doing it well cheaper than you never thought would be possible :)
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I will get back to you soon,
Jasu
