Why New Zealand?

---

Many people have asked us why we have chosen to travel to New Zealand. Well, New Zealand was added to our bucket list on Thanksgiving 2010. We were still living in California at that time. Grandma Marj's dementia/alzheimers was advancing, and we knew that taking her to Indiana with us for Christmas wasn't going to be possible. So, we stayed in California for Thanksgiving that year, and took her to spend the day with her long-time friends Frank and Carol Walsh. Also at the Thanksgiving Dinner that day were Frank and Carol's relatives who were in the process of moving back to California after spending several years living in New Zealand. At that point, we had never really given any thought to ever traveling to New Zealand. It simply hadn't ever come up. But, after spending the day together, we felt like we had known these complete strangers forever. We couldn't get enough of listening to their stories of the lifestyle in New Zealand and all of the wonderful places they said we just had to see. Of course, I don't remember those places they recommended that many years ago, but I was intrigued enough to go out and buy myself the Lonely Planet New Zealand travel guide a few months later, and the rest is history. New Zealand was the first country on our travel bucket list. :-)

---