Having decided it wasn’t crazy enough to quit our jobs and sell everything to live in an RV and travel the US, last year we decided to take our 3-year-old on a trip to the other side of the world.

Once Charlotte and I started traveling somewhat regularly a few years ago, New Zealand has been on our list of places to visit someday. That “someday” became January 2020, when American Airlines had an amazing and very short-lived sale on award flights purchased with frequent flier miles. Excited about the freedom afforded by our new lifestyle (we were a little over a month in at the time), we snagged tickets for all three of us.

So, we got up early on a Tuesday morning in Cottonwood, Arizona, and didn’t go to bed again until the Arizona equivalent of 2 AM on Thursday morning in Arrowtown, New Zealand.

Here’s how we got there.

We were staying at an RV resort in Cottonwood, so we had to pack up our rig, tow it over and then back it into a tight space in the park’s storage lot. We then drove our truck about two hours south to the Phoenix airport and dropped it off in long term parking. Once at the airport, we grabbed a drink at the new American Express Centurion lounge, and then caught our flight to Los Angeles.

We had a long layover at LAX, so we wandered around quite a bit. The new international terminal is very modern and even has a cool, if dirty, play area for kids.

Now you’d think that a flight to New Zealand, located 6,500 miles away would depart from that same international terminal, but apparently American Airlines needs a geography lesson, as we had to head back to the much less pleasant domestic terminal for our flight. After we got some much-needed play time in, we made did a lot of walking between terminals, to grab dinner, hit up a lounge, and finally to board our flight.

It was a good thing we got our steps in because we were then stuck in a tight economy class seat for about 13 hours. Izzy did well, sleeping most of the way. Charlotte and I rested our eyes but couldn’t manage to actually nod off. Charlotte and I have been fortunate enough to make our last few overseas trips up in business class, so that made the small, barely reclining seats, questionable food, and lack of service just a bit more painful.

We landed at the Auckland, New Zealand airport without incident, then proceeded with our well-rested, but still out of sorts three-year-old to immigration. Moving slowly, we were among the last people from our plane to arrive and stood in a long line to enter the country. There were automated passport control kiosks available to citizens of many countries, but apparently, the signage needs to be better because almost no one was taking advantage of them. Instead, everyone was waiting in line in front of us. Sadly, we were ineligible to use the kiosks with Izzy, because I guess they know how families with young children are the best at waiting patiently in long lines for some exciting bureaucracy. But eventually, we made it to the front and were admitted to New Zealand.

We were entering the home stretch of our travels, but still had another plane to catch. Before our flight, we grabbed some lunch at the airport McDonald’s. Now this isn’t exactly the best way to experience a new culture, but when traveling with a 3-year-old you make some compromises. At least they had a veggie burger on the menu for Charlotte, a happy meal for Izzy, and something “exotic” for me. I ordered a Georgie Pie, which was a savory steak pie. Not bad, and I’m glad I tried it, but wouldn’t order it again.

After lunch, we figured out how to recheck our luggage, and got to take in some sunshine, and fresh air (at least as fresh as an airport can get) as we walked from the international to the domestic terminal.

New Zealand isn’t a huge country but has many amazing sites to see. Things are quite spread out, so we figured the best way to see them all would be to rent a car. We decided to immediately fly from Auckland down to Queenstown on New Zealand’s south island. From there, we would rent a car, and make our way north, crossing the Cook Strait that separates the north and south island on a ferry, then resuming our drive north until we reached Auckland and flew back home. This would give us the freedom to travel at our own pace and select our sites.

I reserved a car with Avis for our whole trip at a great rate but made a small mistake when booking it. The reservation didn’t start until the day after we arrived in Queenstown. Time zones are hard and crossing the international date line is harder. And all our other reservations worked out! You can’t win ’em all. Anyway, you’d think it would be a simple matter to adjust the reservation online or over the phone. But renting a car is like casting a spell. In order to get a good rate, you need to speak the magic words or discount codes. Trying to adjust the reservation by simply adding an extra day removed the discounts for the entire reservation and would have cost more than a thousand dollars. Luckily, I managed to notice the missing day before we got to the Avis counter in Queenstown. I was somehow able to get online in the Auckland airport (free airport wifi is almost always awful, and New Zealand internet is pretty bad in general) and booked a single day rental car with National. I never managed to get a confirmation, but they had a reservation for me at the counter. So with a quick glance at my American driver’s license, they reminded me that they drive on the left here and sent me on my way.

We pushed our luggage trolley out of the small airport into the adjacent rental car lot and found our blue Corolla hatchback. (Quick rant – every other country in the world provides free luggage carts at their airports, but in the US you gotta pay $5. Thanks, Obama.) Charlotte had already determined she would not be driving in this crazy backwards country, so I hopped behind the wheel.

Luckily Charlotte’s phone plan has reasonable international roaming rates, so she fired up Google Maps and directed me to our cute little motel in Arrowtown, only about 15 minutes from the airport.

I think it was around 4:30 in the afternoon, on Thursday, January 30 by the time we got checked in, which means we had been traveling for about 40 hours straight. With a 3-year-old! Laying it out like that really makes me wonder what we were thinking when we planned this trip. We were tired, only a little worse for the wear, and we had made it to New Zealand!

Up next: Arrowtown to Omarama