getting excited

With only a few weeks to go, plans for our New Zealand trip are in full swing. We asked everyone we know who's been there what their favourite spots were, marked them all on a map and came up with clusters covering Christchurch, Akaroa, Mount Cook / Aoraki, Lake Takepo and the nearby observatory, one of the big glaciers, the Tranzalpine train, Punakaiki and the pancake rocks, the Japanese-style Maruia hot springs, Kahurangi national park, Golden Bay, Pupu springs, the Abel Tasman trek and Picton. We've decided we will be overdoing it if we try and visit the south of the south island too. Lake Takepo is probably as far south as we'll get.