Karen invited me to go to New Zealand with her last October. The only catch -- it would be for four days. My boss' thought I was crazy (it's a 12 hour flight afterall) -- heck, even people on the plane thought I was crazy! I have no regrets though, it was an amazing trip.

It was definitely a memorable trip full of driving and new experiences. I love the feeling of just traveling with a girl friend. It's always fun times and reminds me that we girls are stronger and more capable than we think! It was both of our first times driving on the opposite side of the road and I think we spent most of our trip there driving (think: 5-6 hours of driving a DAY). We were stationed in Auckland, but it's crazy how different a 30 minute drive out of the city does. New Zealand has so many different sceneries (tropical, rolling hills, farmland, mountains, caves) within such a short distance.

Here are some of my favorite places we visited:

Cathedral Cove, Coromandel

A truly fantastic hike. We hiked in just before sunset so had the beaches mostly to ourselves. Hiking back in pitch darkness (with no headlamp eek!) was a whole different experience. We also spent some time pulling over and checking out the numerous cows that live in New Zealand!

Blue Springs Putaruru

A photographer's dream and my absolute favorite place in New Zealand. I was so excited to check this place out. The water here is considered cleaner than bottled water. Can you believe it's only 30 minutes from Hobbiton?