‘I can’t believe we’re actually going’

Three days in and I’m finally writing this first post, blame jet lag, expert levels of procrastination and a very good book I was reading on the flights out. Much to Amelia’s disbelief we’ve actually begun our trip (Amelia will herein referred to as ‘the unbrave’). What started as just a post-holiday blues bedtime conversation, which actually led to us moving in together...a whole other story, led to us deciding between Canada or New Zealand for a long holiday. This mothballed out of control until it became a 6 month, once in a lifetime, round the world trip.

Our overall itinerary is as follows: Canada, Fiji, New Zealand, Borneo, The Philippines, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, and potentially Sri Lanka. Depending on money and whether I’ve grown an acceptable beard yet I may carry on to somewhere else for a couple of weeks afterwards, which started out as a joke to annoy Amelia but the more I say it the more I believe it, yet to be decided.

We have camper vans in Canada (three and a half weeks) and New Zealand (five weeks), which from the past 3 days experience are an absolute boat to drive and have a lot more to them than the idyllic dream of off the grid living (like a poo pipe to clear out the toilet, as fun to operate as it sounds). I criticise, however even three days in we’ve been able to visit and stay at a couple of genuinely stunning national parks so from the experience thus far I would highly recommend. We’ll be going into more detail on the campers in another post. 

Quick synopsis of the rest of the trip: As the only driver I insisted on Fiji as a very chilled buffer between Canada and New Zealand. Just looking for sun, sea and sand.   Then flying into Auckland for a loop of both islands. Followed by saving orangutans in Borneo and picking up my mates phone in the Philippines (+ Christmas and new year). Then the well trodden banana pancake route of South East Asia, Sri Lankan heat, then back to London to be hit in the face by reality once more. 

It just started raining and I need a blanket (definitely didn’t bring enough warm clothes) so I’ll leave it there. Hopefully will have another post up soon about Squamish, Sharon Falls the Stawamus Chief trails and Alice Lake where we are currently staying.