Opinion: New horizons to discover in an important year

An inconvenient volcanic eruption has scuppered travel plans to Bali. Photo/file

I'm planning a vacation for early February.

For those of us who work over the traditional summer holiday period, we have to take our holidays during the rest of the year.

This year, I've booked in holidays to work in with when my husband's summer job finishes and his study starts up again.

We have two glorious weeks to ourselves, which just so happens to cover some special dates in our relationship - our first wedding anniversary, Valentine's Day and, most importantly of all, my birthday.

Just kidding.

Figuring out where to spend those two weeks is proving a challenge.

What we're after is a beautiful location, warm climate, irreplaceable memories and great photos - all for a good price.

There are many places we'd love to travel around the world, but with our limited time frame and budget, we have to stick to the Pacific or Southeast Asia.

As I mentioned in an earlier editorial, we went to Thailand in 2017 and also travelled a fair bit around New Zealand, so this year we hope to explore new horizons.

That rules out New Zealand, Thailand and Australia.

We were super keen on going to Bali - it was the place we were next hoping to cross off our travel bucket list - but that blasted volcano decided to rear its head again.

Hubby's been to Fiji and isn't interested in returning.

Raro's another option, but we've been frightened off by stories about the cost of wine and WiFi - two very important factors in the perfect Instagram-worthy vacay.

The cost of flights everywhere else seem outrageous.

I know, I know, First World problems.

But it costs a lot of money to travel and I want to make sure we get it right.

There's so much to see in this world, and only so much you get a chance to see.