Retro Vacation Photos {New Zealand}

New Zealand was one of my favorite places. It was definitely one of the most exotic destinations I have ever experienced.

I did a lot of detailed journaling on this trip in my trip notebook.

Frustratingly, even though it was one of the most beautiful places I've ever been, since we went in May (early winter/late fall for the southern hemisphere), it was cloudy and foggy much of the time, and I just didn't get as many great photos of the natural landscape as I would've liked.

And when I did hand my camera off to someone to try to get a good one of me...they often didn't know how to use it. This was one of the first trips where nearly everyone had a digital camera. When I went to Italy just a few years prior, everyone was using film. But on this trip, everyone had pretty much switched to digital cameras....

Hi mom. I'm in New Zealand!! (huge thanks to whoever took this picture. good job.)

Kind of reminded me of Missouri.

The day we went to see the geysers in Rotorua it was so rainy and foggy!

We got to visit the Waitomo glow worm caves. It was incredible. I knew that I wouldn't be able to adjust my camera to the right settings in our little moving canoe, so I just made the executive decision to enjoy the cave as it was from my own eyes and not spend the whole time fiddling with aperture and shutter speed.

I found these little postcards and things from my scrapbook from the trip. They are too precious not to share.

Rugby players...in the airport...SO HOT! New Zealand had the most gorgeous men.

The carvings and art of the Maori are just incredible.