Why New Zealand?

I guess that I had a choice of pretty much anywhere in the world to go for my sabbatical. Why did I pick New Zealand? My sabbatical had to be in February/March time frame. For me, that pretty much eliminated the Northern hemisphere. Not that I don't enjoy winter and some of the outdoor activities, but it seemed like I should go somewhere warmer. Africa was out because I went there last time and even though it was great and there are a whole lot of areas that I didn't get to see, I wanted something different.

I considered Viet Nam for a while. It was obviously a big influence when I was growing up (I reached draft age right after they ended the draft). I read some great things about visiting there and you can hike the Ho Chi Minh trail. Because of language and since I was doing this on my own, I decided to save that for another time.

Another area of consideration was Argentina or Chile. I went to Buenos Aires a year and one half ago and it was great. I loved the food, the wine and the people and the exchange rate was easy on the pocket book. I looked into going into a language immersion course to learn Spanish. In the end, I decided I'd been there.

This left New Zealand/Australia. I went with the family to Australia a number of years ago. I've had a number of friends that have gone to New Zealand and thought it was great. It met my criteria of being in the Southern Hemisphere, no real problems with language, and plenty of outdoor adventure things to do. Now all I had to do was plan the trip!