Looking at our budget, if we stay as long as we anticipated we’ll be over budget. Not only that, but we’re not going to be able to enjoy the South Island (which everyone here says is where the REAL New Zealand is at) in the winter without buying a significant amount of thermal wear, which we’ll just have to discard when we head to Indonesia. So, we’re going to be leaving NZ a little early.
We’ve booked flight from Auckland to Bali in late June. We’re going to visit the consulate in Wellington next week to verify Visa requirements, etc, and our Visa will only be good in Indonesia for 30 days. That’ll give us some time to travel to Jakarta and do a little exploring before heading to Malaysia. The American Dollar travels much further there as well, so we’ll be able to recover from our earlier expensive days here in NZ.
So, for the rest of our time here, we’ll be heading back up north towards Auckland. We will be in Wellington for a few days and I’d like to go to Napier (lots of art deco architecture there) and perhaps visit the old Hobbiton sets. Time will go quickly I’m sure.
Rhys Martin was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1981. In 2009, he sold everything he owned and left the country, living out of a backpack for ten months. He discovered a passion for photography while traveling throughout Southeast Asia and Europe.
After returning home, he looked at his home town and Oklahoma heritage with fresh eyes. When he began to explore his home state, Rhys turned his attention to historic Route 66. As he became familiar with the iconic highway, he began to truly appreciate Oklahoma’s place along the Mother Road. He has traveled all 2,400 miles of Route 66, from Chicago to Los Angeles. He has also driven many miles on rural Oklahoma highways to explore the fading Main Streets of our small towns. Rhys has a desire to find and share the unique qualities of the Sooner State with the rest of the world.
Cloudless Lens Photography has been featured in several publications including This Land, Route 66 Magazine, Nimrod Journal, Inbound Asia Magazine, The Oklahoman, and the Tulsa World. In 2018 he published his first book, Lost Restaurants of Tulsa.
Rhys loves to connect with people and share his experiences; ask him about enjoyable day trips from Tulsa, locations along Route 66, and good diners or burger joints along the way.
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Rhys' Pieces 
You have to go to Hobbiton!