One of the amazing perks at Duolingo is a paid sabbatical to celebrate ten years with the company.
I knew exactly what I wanted to do with mine: go to Peru and New Zealand, both places that have been on my bucket list for years. They are also far away enough that regular vacation wouldn’t give me enough time to explore them as fully as I’d like.
Thanks to the sabbatical, I was able to spend two weeks in Peru, six weeks in New Zealand, and still have some time to laze around at home and complete some projects.
In Peru, we did the Salkantay trek with Mountain Lodges of Peru (highly recommended if you prefer trekking in comfort like me). We hiked to Humantay Lake, crossed over the Salkantay pass, descended down into the cloud forest and along the Santa Teresa river valley before ending at Machu Picchu. In the afternoons, we lounged around, soaking in the hot tub with views of the mountains and sipping on pisco sours.
In New Zealand, we traveled across both North Island and South Island.
After a few days in Auckland, we went to Taupō, where we saw black swans and hiked the famous Tongariro Alpine Crossing. Then we flew to South Island. Our first week was at Abel Tasman National Park where we kayaked and hiked… and like typical tourists, mistook weka birds for the much shyer kiwi. Weka, on the other hand, are not shy at all, and one of them stole my husband’s sandwich right out of his hand!
Then we were off to the west coast of South Island, which was much rainier than I expected due to the Southern Alps of New Zealand forming a massive barrier that captures the clouds. We stayed at Franz Josef and did several hikes there with stunning views of the glacier. A lifetime highlight was the heli-hike onto Fox Glacier. I got to sit right next to the pilot in the helicopter, and we spent several hours on the glacier walking with crampons to see waterfalls, blue ice, ice caves, and crevasses.
A few decades ago, the glacier reached all the way down into the valley, but now the bottom of the glacier is at 700 meters of elevation.
Our next stop was Queenstown, a very popular tourist destination, and for good reason: It’s known as the adventure capital of the world. It sits along Lake Wakatipu, an 80-kilometer-long glacial lake with stunning views of nearby mountains such as The Remarkables and Ben Lomond and Queenstown Hill, both just above the town. I ended up climbing Queenstown Hill three times and Ben Lomond twice.
After that, we spent about a week in Te Anau. We were less lucky with the weather there, and our kayaking trip in Milford Sound was cancelled due to a storm that dumped 5.5 inches of rain on us with gale-force winds. However, kayaking in Doubtful Sound on a rare sunny day made up for that, and seeing a kea bird (the only alpine parrot in the world) on the top of Luxmore Peak made up for the near-zero visibility of that cloudy day.
The wildest thing that happened in Te Anau (and, in fact, in the entire trip) is that I ran into two other Duos who were also on sabbatical in New Zealand! They were bikepacking across the country, and we happened to be in the same town, on the same path, hiking in opposite directions when we suddenly came face-to-face! What are the odds?!
My final week was on my own at Aro Ha, a wellness retreat, a way to reconnect with myself before returning to work. The daily schedule was yoga, hiking, massage, and spa, with delicious vegan meals made from the fruits and vegetables grown in their garden.
Only ten more years until my next sabbatical!