Disney Travel Agent Edmond

When I heard that New Zealand specialized in Pinot Noir, I was like, great, I don't like Pinot, so gross.....WELL, turns out I do like it when I'm in New Zealand. I don't know how to explain it, but it was just really good! My go to is usually a nice Cabernet Sauvignon, but I just really don't know what happened to me on this trip!!! I tried other wines!!! AND I liked them!

Is it because I was on vacation? Maybe. Is it because the weather was absolutely phenomenal? Possibly. But either way, I loved them all....I actually preferred the Pinot Noir to my Cabernet. Apparently, New Zealand's cooler climate is ideal for the finicky Pinot Noir grape. Wait a minute, I did not know I had so much in common with that grape...I'm finicky, and I love a cool climate....I've bonded with a grape!!

And, I have one more confession to make....I tried the Rose' and loved it too....I hate it here in the states...Hate is a strong word, but I really, really, really, don't like it...I want to, because I want nothing more to say...'Rose' ALL Day' with my friends, but it's really hard to do when you don't like it...I guess I can only Rose' ALL Day when in New Zealand....When can we go back???

Look, Listen, I don't like to be in caves and it is even more scary when there is rushing ocean water rushing by in the middle of the night. Now, I know that it is best for glow worms to be in the dark and it is their environment, but for me, it was frightening. I did say in my video that there were flood waters, and it was closed earlier in the day for flooding because of all the rain they had the night before, but I know that they would not have let us go in, if it were unsafe. With that said, we did take a boat in the pitch black as you could hear the waters rushing by, and had it not been for my friend's moral support, I would have hyperventilated. I'm glad I did it once so that I could tell all of you about it, but I never have to see a glow worm as long as I live.

Some other great stops on the South Island of New Zealand included, Lake Tekapo. It was really gorgeous there and one of my favorite hotels that we stayed in for the entire trip called Peppers Bluewater Resort. We had a fabulous 2 bedroom suite with a full living room upstairs....I really wished I had gotten a video of the room, but by the time we got there I was exhausted and we had an early wake up call the next day. This is a place I would return to, perhaps to even ski during their winter, which is our summer.

Lake Wanaka was a cute little town with a beautiful lake, where we did a sunset happy hour cruise. The weather was absolutely amazing. We had to stop at the tree on Lake Wanaka to get a picture with the hundreds of other people wanting to get a shot....I have no idea what the significance of the tree is, but it was popular and so, we did it! LOL

Dundedin and Saint Clair Beach is another stop I would make again. I loved the beach at Saint Clair although I wished the weather was better while we were there. That is why it's always a great idea to plan more than one night at each location in case one day is a bust. I know that coastal weather can be unpredictable, but planning a few days would help plan around activities if something had to be cancelled.

Ready to plan New Zealand? Click on the trip request link to reach out or visit my Facebook page for inspiration.

One of the favorite days of my trip to the South island of New Zealand was our day on the Milford Sound. The drive from Te Anau was spectacular with amazing views at every turn. If I were to go back, I would definitely spend more than just one day in this area. There was so many places to stop along the way to take pictures as well as hike.

One thing I loved about New Zealand is the fact that they do not have animals there that are waiting to kill you, so I hike in the mountains would be perfectly safe. You do have to be mindful of taking your trash out with you though.

The Milford Sound is a stunning Fjord located in Fiordland National Park in New Zealand's South Island. It's renowned for it's towering cliffs, waterfalls, and lush rainforests, and is often called the 'eighth wonder of the world.' Milford Sound is a Fiord, formed by ancient glaciers carving a valley that was then flooded by sea. It extends 9.3 miles inland from the Tasman Sea.

Milford Sound is one of the wettest places on Earth, with an average of rain 186 days of the year. We were lucky to have sunny skis the day we were there, but that would also be a reason, when planning to maybe plan to spend more than one day in the area. My next trip, I will for sure take a kayak out onto the Sound.

That one time we went to Disney World by ourselves!!

About 20 plus years ago, my husband and I took our 3 children to Disney World. We had one pre-teen, one high schooler and one college kid. We wanted to save money at the time, so we decided to pile in an SUV and drive from central Oklahoma to Orlando. This perhaps was not the best idea. While amazing memories were made, mostly at the beach along the way and the alligator farm on the way home, my husband declared that we would never take a family vacation again, and we didn’t. BUT, now that I’m an agent, I decided to give Disney another go. Mind you, I am in my later 50’s and my husband is 10 years older (you do the math).

For our sans kids trip, we decided on a 4 night stay with 3 full days of park hopper passes, and we utilized every waking moment of the trip! In fact, there were a few times we had to find a park bench to nap! LOL I arranged a transfer from the airport to our hotel that was easy peasy and took the stress out of trying to find the uber pick up at the airport. We stayed at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge and once we got there, my “wants” got the better of me, so we upgraded to a Savannah view room. I wanted to have coffee looking at the giraffes! I was expecting so see them in the morning and the evening, but one thing we noticed was that the animals were more active outside of our room, during the middle of the day when we happened to come back to our room to refresh. But, I would say, the extra cost was worth it, in my opinion.

I loved staying on property so we could get an early start in the parks. Animal Kingdom will forever be my favorite Disney World park, but I do love eating and drinking my way through Epcot, but I only got about two countries in before I got full! I need to learn to pace myself. It’s also nice to have easy access to transportation to get from one park to another and back to our resort. As older Disney World attendees, it was a lot of fun to get on the bus to go back to the resort and see all the families with small children getting on, a lot of the children screaming and crying, and Jeff and I giving each other that knowing look, like “thank goodness that is not us”!

Our trip was during Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party that was a ton of fun and I ate enough cookies and hot chocolate in one night to last me a lifetime. There were a few moments that we thought it would be fun to bring our grandkids back and then we saw children having meltdowns and we decided, it would be more fun if their parents brought them. We also got to experience the Candlelight Processional that was a part of EPCOT’s International Festival of the Holidays. This was a very powerful presentation where there is a celebrity narrator that reads the biblical story of Christmas accompanied by an orchestra and massed choir. The celebrity that was featured when we were there was Whoopi Goldberg. I wasn’t sure what to expect, if I’m being honest, but it was spectacular, and I would love to experience it again.

There is so much more I could share about this trip, and if you have any questions, do not hesitate to reach out to me at https://www.vincentvacations.com/agents/jeanetteblevins/travelform . If you have a chance to go to Disney with your significant other, without taking the kids, I would highly recommend it! It was certainly one that we will cherish the moments together for a long time to come.