👋 I think that this will be the last post for 2023. Steve and I are spending the last few weeks of the year between Colorado and Nebraska and will take a break from the travel blog. Thanks to everyone who followed our journeys this year (images below) and especially those who reached out to give us an update on what you were doing. It helped us feel close even though we were not. 🤗
 
We were so fortunate to travel around 7500 miles of New Zealand / Aotearoa over 5 months (Feb - Jul). We included the high (and some low) lights of these travels in this blog as a way to share and remember the amazing experience. 🇳🇿

Note: The Cook Islands are northeast of NZ and do not fit neatly into a graphic so I took some liberties with that part of the map. 😇

We came back to the US in late July and drove almost twice the NZ distance (14,523 miles) in the same amount of time (with a few flights along the way). The roads are much larger and straighter in the US. ⏩

We shared most of the US roadtrip in this blog also. It was wonderful to catch up with so many of you along the way. As I mentioned before, we got a good reminder that America is a very large and diverse country in so many ways. I hope we can acknowledge this to stay strong. 💪 🇺🇸

Wishing all the joys of the season and a very happy new year! 🥂 🎉  📆