The Grand Adventures of Nano: Kia Ora!

On our way to another grand adventure!

Kia Ora, Followers of Nano, and welcome to Nano's latest adventure...in New Zealand! Which, geographically, is as far away from the Appalachian Trail as I can get without starting to come back again. I know that, originally, I planned this blog to be a blog about my AT hike, but I am so excited about this trip that I felt compared to fire the website back up. Besides, trekking halfway around the world absolutely counts as an adventure, and I'm still Nano, even if my trails have strayed a bit from the familiar AT. So, for the next month, I will be sharing my experiences while I explore this beautiful new country. I've never been to New Zealand before, but I've dreamed of coming here for years, ever since I fell in love with J.R.R. Tolkein's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy and realized it was filmed here. The fact that New Zealand is considered by many to be the global leader in ecotourism and mecca for outdoors enthusiasts is just icing. Once again, my incredible parents are with me. We finally made it to the other side of the world after a total of about 18 hours of flight time. That seems like a lot, but the timing couldn't have been better, since our longest flight left LAX at 10:00 pm and arrived in Auckland at 8:00 am. It just felt like a cramped night's sleep. Even though the personal entertainment systems in every seat and the far-above-average food on Air New Zealand made the trip go by in a flash, I was elated to touch down on kiwi soil.

The Kiwi's are serious about their biosecurity. No really. Even certain types of shampoos are prohibited.

We made it through customs and took a puddle jumper from Auckland to the South Island, specifically the Marlborough region, which, in fact, is famous for producing wine, not cigarettes.

It's also where New Zealand starts to look a lot like Middle Earth...

We made it to our first hotel, which is smack dab in the middle of vineyard country, very smoothly. The proprietors of the hotel were extremely hospitable, and before we could even catch our breath we had a bottle of wine (made from grapes grown on vines we were literally looking at as we drank it) and a cheese tray in front of us, and after washing 30 hours worth of airport grime off of us and a nice nap, we had an amazing dinner featuring local ingredients.

It looked good enough to eat.

Marlborough sits in the valley between two pretty impressive mountain ranges, and even in our first day here it is easy to see why filmmakers, photographers, foodies, nature freaks and jet setters alike dream of coming here. It's gorgeous. And that description can't do what I've seen today justice. I'm beyond excited about this latest adventure. Stay tuned. No doubt there are amazing things to come.