EJ's Travels

There has been a slight change in my original plans.  Instead of a month of leisure in New Zealand to recharge my batteries and plan for the year ahead, I made a hasty decision to adjust my itinerary in order to meet up with my friend, Susi, in Namibia as soon as possible!  And because the only choice with our return ticket if we’re not going to use it is to trade it in for an around the world ticket, I did.  One of the stipulations of such a ticket is that all my travel has to be in one direction around the globe.  This meant that I couldn’t fly from New Zealand to Africa and then back to Asia.  So, instead, I am heading east.

After two days of mad errands in Christchurch I flew to Auckland on the north island with my friend, Eric.  We rented a car and drove north to explore the Bay of Islands.  Eric had also cycle toured through New Zealand years ago, and like me, he had not spent any time on this northern most tip of the island.  We only had 5 days so we made the most of it and were on the go for the entirety of the trip.  We wanted warm and we wanted coastline.  We got both.  Not to mention stunning scenery.  Sand beaches.  Gorgeous harbours.  GREEN countryside and forests.  Tranquil blue seas.  Sailing and snorkeling.  Swimming the surf.  Eating green mussels.  Falling asleep to the sound of the ocean.  It was wonderful.  Sadly I can share none of the visual beauty with you.  Eric’s camera stopped working while we were still on the ice and mine decided to die as soon as I got off of it.  Maddening I tell you.

Eric and I said goodbye in Auckland.  He flew back to Colorado for a couple weeks of training and then returns to Antarctica for the winter at Palmer station.  I flew to Sydney, Australia, where I was met by my friend, Sam, who I met while cycling through New Zealand 5 years ago.  He was on an around the world adventure when I met him.  When he hit Australia he stopped.  Instead of returning home to England, he decided to take up residency in Sydney.  He has a lovely apartment just two blocks from the beach.  I am enjoying the quiet.  Catching my breath.  Tonight we met up with my friend, Dom, who I met in Switzerland 9 years ago!  I saw him last time I was here and it was wonderful to reconnect with him and his partner, Steven, once again.

Dom, Steven, Me, Richard & Sam

Only a couple more days of familiarity.  Continuing east, on Monday I fly to Punta Arenas, Chile, where I will spend two and a half weeks exploring Patagonia and the southern reaches of the country and will end my stint in South America with 5 days in Buenos Aires.  From there I connect through Madrid (Spain) and then Johannesberg (South Africa) continuing on to Windhoek, Namibia.  There I will join my friend, Susi, who I also met while cycling through New Zealand.  She lives and works in Namibia giving guided tours of the game parks and land.  I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to visit Africa when I have a local guide.  I will spend a couple of months there before continuing on to India in mid June.  All of this could change between now and then, but this is the plan as it stands now.

I’ll be sure to keep you abreast of any changes.  😉

see more photos at: http://ej.smugmug.com

Tags: Travel

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 25th, 2006 at 9:58 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.