Countdown Begins

It's getting really real now! This is our last week of work, Matt's brother and his girlfriend are moving into the house this week, and in two weeks we'll be getting on our first flight. Can't believe how fast everything is happening!

We've gotten a lot of planning and preparation done in the past few weeks. We booked all of our major international flights back in December through Airtreks. We were very pleased with our experience with them. 

Since then we've booked a handful of our lodgings in New Zealand through airbnb. We've found what look like really great places through there, so we're very excited about that!

We also booked our little flight between the North and South Islands of New Zealand for Feb 21st, and I was psyched to be able to book a seal swim for that same day in Kaikoura. I've heard great reviews!

We also just recently finally booked our Botswana safari. We've spent several weeks looking into various ones and exchanging many emails with the different companies. We finally decided to go with Steffi at Gondwana Tours & Safaris. She's been very responsive and helpful, and was able to customize a tour that fit our travel plans and our budget (for the most part!). We're incredibly excited for this part of our adventure and very thankful for Steffi for helping us figure it out.

Zambezi was the other company that we almost went with, but even though we didn't go that route we were still very impressed with Chris. He was very knowledgeable and helpful in determining what would be the best fit for us. Their quote was a little higher due to slightly more luxurious lodgings so we decided not go that route, but we would still highly recommend working with them.

That's where we are so far! My next priority is to figure out how we plan to scuba dive at the Great Barrier Reef. If you have any advice on that, please leave a comment for me. :)