Here’s what will be happening in the next few months:

April: Wellington (in two weeks!) for the first time. I’m excited about this! I don’t totally know what we will do in Wellington yet but I am excited to explore a new city for a few days.

May – June: Memphis for work purposes. Will be nice to be back “home” to work, see people, and take care of things.

July: Mt Ruapehu snowboarding trip! The mountain opens in June and we are hitting in up in july. I still think of July as summer so it feels strange to be planning a snowboarding trip for that month.

Lots of good traveling coming up. I’m excited!

Yep, I want to go home. Just for a little bit as I also want to attend a blogging conference when I’m back.

So now begins the process of seeing if this trip is even possible given the expense of it. I will be looking for sponsors if possible so if anyone out there wants to sponsor a short leg of the trip please contact me.

I run several blogs with thousands of daily visits which have anywhere from PR2 to PR4. Advertising options can be arranged as well as promotion at a conference with several hundred other bloggers in the health niche. I would be visiting the following cities: Denver, Memphis, Baltimore. I’m open to discussing options for full or partial sponsorships.

And…. now begins the actual process of trying to save and contact potential sponsorship companies. I’d really love to go home and make it to the conference. Wish me luck!

I’m pretty good with geography and have always been interested in maps. Because of that I know *most* of the countries in the world and generally have a pretty good idea where most places are located on the map. You won’t be able to call me an ignorant American who thinks Europe is a country, that’s for sure.

But I still am oblivious to a lot of countries despite my love and knowledge of geography. The tiny countries? The island nations? I’ll admit I don’t have a good handle on them. I only know about the most popular places like Fiji, Bali, Jamaica, etc. The ones where you might actually plan a vacation because you’ve heard so much about them.

However I discovered a new to me country out here in the South Pacific that looks interesting: Vanuatu. Or more specifically the Republic of Vanuatu.

I found some vanuatu holiday deals that look mighty tempting. The weather changed over the weekend and now that we are heading into fall and then winter I know I’m going to be anxious to escape to an island with better weather that isn’t so close to Antarctica. Vanuatu looks like it might have entered the ring of places contending to get our first islands trip later this year or next. I’m definitely adding it to the list of places I’m considering.

Now the list has grown and I’m discovering more amazing islands in the South Pacific the decision on where to go is going to be even harder!

What island do you think I should visit next? Have you been to Vanautu? Recommend it?

But a girl can dream, right?

I stumbled across some Costa Rica vacation rentals that looked so nice I started looking for plane tickets. I like to get ahead of myself when considering travel plans because the initial thoughts and planning is just so much fun. I’ve always wanted to go to Costa Rica actually so I think it might be an amazing trip.

I’m not sure why Costa Rica is on my list of places to travel but it is. It’s also a place where I think I’d like to have a vacation home or rental or something that I could visit whenever I wanted. One day that might be a reality. Let’s hope that day comes sooner rather than later.

But for now I’m going to *try* and focus on realistic trips ahead. I mean, I’m in the south pacific and might as well enjoy it for a while!

I considered all the normal things like hotels, inns, bed and breakfasts, and hostels. The problem is that though I would be happy to stay at the cheapest option, my partner wouldn’t. He doesn’t like hostels after a couple less-than-thrilling experiences staying in a hostel. While I’ve had bad experiences too I’ve also had good experiences and when I travel alone look to stay in hostels to save money. But since our next trips are all together I have looked at other options he might enjoy more.

One option I’m considering is renting a vacation home. I came across a few sites while searching for places to stay when we go snowboarding this year. Last year my friends that went rented out a vacation home and this year we would most likely rent two houses with the amount of people we have going this time. Also renting a house might be a nice way to visit Wellington for a few days and have a more comfy home base. I’ve been searching and browsing the vacation rental sites and if you are interested you can click here for rentals.

The more I look at the various homes available to rent the more excited I get about the idea. Or maybe I’m just excited about our next trip. Either way, I’m excited!

Here’s the list of places we want to travel:

• Wellington
• Snowboarding in New Zealand
• South Island road trip
• Trip to islands (either Cook Islands or Samoa)
• Trip to Japan

That is probably in list of importance too, meaning we will most likely go on them in that order.

Which means… I need to start planning a trip to Wellington!

With some sun.

Instead of in rainy Auckland.

Yes, Taupo is a good place indeed. Can’t wait to go back!

That’s why I’m very excited about my friend Tara’s new site Fab Girl Travel.

Tara has always traveled a lot for both work and pleasure. She started her blog a couple month’s ago and writes about both her travels and how to travel fabulously. Fab Girl Travel’s tagline is: The online travel guide for the fabulous girl of the go!

Obviously I’m her target market since I’m a girl who wants both to be fabulous and to travel frequently. I must say, so far I’m loving the site.

Some of my favorite posts on Fab Girl Travel so far include:

• Who is Fab Girl Travel?
• Fab Tip: Packing
• Fab Travel: The Luggage Debate
• Ask Fab Gabby: Inexpensive Solo Vacation

Those are just a few of the articles I’ve enjoyed. I’m excited to keep reading and see where Tara takes the site in the future. It has great potential to be an awesome niche travel resource. Make sure you check Fab Girl Travel out!

And this:

I can’t wait to go back to New Zealand! I can’t wait to get to the beach & ocean! I’m already planning a trip to the South Island in my head.

New Zealand’s South Island – Though I’m terrified of the earthquakes I still want to visit the South Island. Since it’s the closest and the cheapest to visit this will probably be our next trip besides going back to the US.

UK: Ireland, England, Scotland – I have always wanted to visit these places and I haven’t. When I lived in Europe I ran out of time and money. So they are still at the top of my list. This is a bigger trip that will happen at some point.

Fiji, Bali, Cook Islands – Basically I want to visit any of the islands near New Zealand. It’s silly to know that I now live near these islands I’ve always dreamed of visiting. The plane tickets aren’t too expensive so they will be visited in the next few years.

Hawaii – I’ve got a thing for islands, apparently. I’ve always wanted to go to Hawaii and now that I’ve had a taste of a similar culture in New Zealand I can’t wait to visit Hawaii. We wanted to have a Hawaiian honeymoon but that won’t be happening as we plan to stay closer to home. Maybe for an anniversary?

Others that fall into the “would be nice to visit” category for me: Japan, Costa Rica, any South American country, Canada, and Cuba.

I would also like to take a few months at some point and drive across America slowly. I’ve driven across the country multiple times in all different directions, but each time it was a fast trip. I barely had time to check out anything. I would love to rent/buy an RV and just slowly explore (and eat) across the US. Sounds awesome.