UNSEEN TRAVEL AGENCY

Have you ever made a mistake that turned out to be awesome? Here’s my story of one of the best mistakes I’ve made while travelling… There’s this thing in New Zealand called black water rafting, which is essentially tubing down an underground river inside a cave. Growing up in the North Island means I’ve been aware of black water rafting at the Waitomo Caves for a long time. It’s something I always thought I MIGHT do one day… if I could get over my fear of the not being able to see what was in the pitch black water with me! While we were planning our New Zealand honeymoon we wanted to pack in as much as possible, including a trip to Waitomo Caves. And since we were going to be there, how could we pass up one of the best adventure activities you can possibly do in the North Island? New Zealand is, after all, a well-known adrenalin-inducing country! So there we were,  just a couple of days into our NZ trip, still getting used to the complete reversal in both ...

Visiting Hobbiton Movie Set is one of the ultimate bucket list activities in New Zealand . We highly recommend it even if you haven’t seen the movies or read the books. It was one of the most memorable and coolest things to see during our travels. You’ll be amazed by all of the details and effort put into the Shire such as the hobbit holes, local garden, and even the trees. Plus, you’re on the famous movie set where Elijah Wood and Sir Ian McKellan filmed which is already awesome in itself. Prior to our trip, we rewatched the extended versions of “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit” movies to get us into the Hobbiton mode. Every time the Shire appeared on the screen, we squealed with excitement that we would get to see it in person. I even started re-reading the “The Lord of the Rings” book, but only completed 15% before the trip. It was a gorgeous and sunny day on the morning of the tour. Rain was in the forecast during our week in New Zealand, but we lucked out. Hobbiton Mov...

After spending some time in Raglan, on the west coast of the North Island, and falling in love with it within seconds of arriving, I couldn’t wait to explore more of New Zealand’s beach towns. Mount Maunganui, located in the Bay of Plenty on the east coast of the country, looked absolutely gorgeous from the photos I’d seen online — I couldn’t wait to relax on the white sand beaches! We arrived on yet another spectacularly sunny day. After hearing about how terrible the weather was in New Zealand for months before getting here, I was refusing to believe it ever rained here — we’d had incredible clear skies and not a drop of rain during the two weeks we’d been here. Not wanting to waste the weather, we decided to spend our first day hiking to the top of Mount Maunganui, the extinct volcano that dominates the landscape in this area. I was loving all the walking I’d been doing in New Zealand and wasn’t going to complain abou...

To anyone cruising casually by, we must have sounded like some sort of demented choir. An out-of-tune, out-of-synch, deranged choir clad in wetsuits and snorkeling gear, bobbing along in the chilly waters of the South Pacific. But none of us cared. They told us that the dolphins liked singing. And so we sang. Kaikoura, a small town located on the east coast of New Zealand's South Island, is one of the best places in the country to have encounters with marine life. Here you can go whale watching, see albatross colonies, spot lazy fur seals, and swim with acrobatic dusky dolphins. This is all because the Hikurangi Trench – a huge deep-sea canyon – lies not far from the Kaikoura coast, enticing all sorts of sea life year-round. I had been to Kaikoura once before, years ago, but bad weather made whale watching or anything else impossible. This time, I vowed to stay longer and get up-close with some of the area's famed sea life. First up? Swimming wit...