New Zealand

Well oops. So you may (or may not) be wondering what happened to me while I was away. Well, honestly, I was just too distracted to write anything. I thought I was going to be writing on here and taking so many pictures the whole time, but I was just too busy living my life. And it was the best thing ever. It was such an amazing feeling to be living so completely in the moment. I had the best time ever in New Zealand, and now that I'm home I want to take some time to reflect on it.

I have never been so happy before in my entire life. I felt so alive and free. I've got the travel bug bad now. I just want to keep going and see the world. Traveling alone was the best thing I could have done for myself, and I think that everyone should travel alone at least once in their life. It sounds stupid and cliche but I really did find myself while traveling solo. When you travel to a new place alone and meet new people you can be so completely yourself. No one will judge you because they have no preconceived idea of who they think you are, it's so freeing. I feel like my own person now, I don't really know how to describe it but something shifted for me.

As well as doing some well needed soul searching, I got to see pretty much the whole country! New Zealand is so small that it's not exactly hard to see all of it in two months, or even two weeks. I met people along the way who were driving the whole country in as little as two weeks. I would not recommend that though, if you have the time take it slow. I would say that one and a half to two months is the perfect amount of time to travel the whole country. If you are on a hop on hop off bus like I was, your route is pretty much planned out for you which is nice if you are going in blind (like I did). I'm going to do a full post about the Kiwi Experience bus I think, but overall I had so much fun on that bus and would recommend it to anyone thinking of traveling all of New Zealand.

New Zealand is seriously the most beautiful country I have ever been too. The scenery is so diverse, even though it is packed onto two teeny islands. The people are the nicest and their attitude on life is so refreshing. Everyone is just happy and chilled and enjoying life. Everything moves a little slower in New Zealand. No one is rushing around frantically, everyone takes their time and doesn't stress. I love it. If I hadn't just spent the last two months on hostel dorm beds, all the stress knots in my neck would have completely disappeared! I've already decided I'm going to move there for a year or two, hopefully in the near future. I don't really know how to describe it, I just felt so connected to the country. By the time I left I felt like New Zealand had kind of become my home. Or home away from home I guess. I just felt like I belonged there.

I'm so incredibly thankful for the past two months and all the awesome people I met and all the memories I've made. 2017 was probably the best year of my life, and I am excited and terrified to see what 2018 brings.