Getting the speed wobbles

So the wheels just about fell off on Friday.  Just as everything was picking up pace and falling into place, we hit a speed bump of a week.

Over the past couple of weeks things had been falling into place.  I had quit my job, my passport was applied for and I had signed off on a final day with the landlord.  Everything was looking good.  Until last week...

Firstly I was told that my plans for my visa were not going to work.  If I want the Youth mobility visa then I will have to get it right from the first time I enter the UK.  So by the time I get back from my Contiki trip, I have automatically lost the first couple of months of my work visa.  Unfortunately there isn't much that I can do about that except accept and move on.

Then on Friday came the kicker.  Contiki has cancelled my trip because they do not feel that Egypt is safe enough.  While I can see this from their point of view as a business,  it sucks for me.  I was given the option of changing to the Greek islands option instead of Egypt,  or getting credit to do a different trip.  Egypt was a massive part of the reason I picked the trip that I did.  In the end I chose the Greek islands option as it still means that I get to go to places such as Turkey.  Still I feel that this is a by far a second place option and am disappointed.   Looks like I will have to do Egypt on my own at some point.

We are go for launch

All systems green, we are go for launch in T minus 11 weeks!

It's all official.  I am definitely leaving.  Tickets are bought and work informed of my resignation.  Kind of a surreal feeling actually.  Feels a bit like the brakes have been taken off and I'm in that period of calm before the acceleration hits.  The world and it's stabilising posts releasing and focusing forward.

So I bought my flights and Contiki trip a few months ago.  All bought and paid for.  A big outlay of cash, but hopefully that is the immediate bulk of it and now I can work on filling in the gaps.  With how hectic general life is, I don't think that I had mentioned that on here yet.  But bought and paid for and the beginning of my trip set in stone.  I fly Wellington to London via Singapore at the beginning of April, a week there to see London and catch up with friends, then The Ultimate European + Egypt tour starting on the 13th April.

However with that sorted there wasn't that much of a feeling of anything done.  Maybe because it was so far away (booked 6 months early) or because it seems more like a holiday than a change to everyday life at this stage.  Today though, I handed in a formal resignation letter at work.  They knew I was going, but until today there had never been anything formal or a final date.  No more.  Last day of work... 20 March 2014!  Nine weeks and counting...

Now the planning rate picks up.  I have been looking at visa and passport details, which will have to be sorted soon so that they can be processed.  Also need to sort insurance soon and discuss final dates with my landlord.  In no time at all I will be homeless and jobless.  I can't wait.

The pencil lines become darker

So big news.  The dates for Contiki have been released.  Which means that I have to make decisions, pay money and commit to something that has been an idea but never entirely real.  This feels like growing up and I am a bit of a fan of not determining my future in advance.  Since leaving University, my life plan has been more a series of ideas that get shaped by people and events around me rather than set in stone decisions that I control.  This requires a mental shift that is not easy.

So since deciding that the end of March would be convenient, STA Travel have got me penciled in on a trip on the 28th of March.  This matches what I told them and is good to know that my place is secure.  But it is not quite what I want anymore.  I do not feel like it leaves me with enough time and I do not want to be rushed saying my goodbyes.  It would also have me at Gallipoli on the 26th of April.  As this is one of the key places that I want to see on the Turkey leg of the trip, the day after ANZAC day does not seem like the best time.  After having 20,000 people through the day before I do not think that I would be seeing it in the best light.  Possibly more true to what it would have looked like during the war, but not as a place of remembrance.  So the 28th trip is now a no go.

After enquiring about the dates for April (expecting that there would be a new trip each week) I was surprised to hear that they only have trips starting on the 13th and the 27th of April.  After all of the planning based on the end of March, the 27th seems a bit late and I feel that things will be dragging on too much.  Ideas that had firmed up in my mind about what to do prior to leaving could become more difficult and tiring if dragged out for the better part of a month.  Delaying finishing work that long also makes life more difficult to balance.  So while possible, not probable.

This leaves the 13th of April as a day that I could leave London to head off through places that I have only heard of in stories or seen images captured by other people.  It is two weeks later than the March date allowing me enough time while only extending a week longer than I would have hoped.  No doubt closer to leaving, the quicker that time will fill up and I will be glad of it.

So with a date it turns out that I have about a week to book when I can get 13% off, and only about a week to try to sort flights at their current price of just under $1000 one-way Wellington - London.  It is going to be a decision heavy and expensive week.

Scouting the twigs

With so many different parts going into creating my trip, I am glad I signed up for some annoying emails from different travel places.  Also glad that I was too lazy to work out how to cancel them.  Due to this, I regularly get sent alot of information useful to trip planning.

Having decided that March would be a convenient time to travel to distant shores, actually nailing down a specific day is much more difficult.  I quite like the idea of going from summer here to summer there and it is on the shoulder of the tourist season over there, so cheaper prices.  It also fitted nicely with changes in my personal life.  However none of these criteria give me a specific day to travel.

To solve this problem I decided that I wanted a week or so after finishing work to travel around NZ to see family and friends before leaving.  That coupled with the week in London before the Contiki trip meant that the date I leave home is determined by the possible dates of the Contiki trip, which have not yet been released for March 2014.  After searching online and on the Contiki website I completely failed to see anywhere that would tell me dates later than August 2013.  Although there was an  internet rumour that sometime in the second half of this year that next years dates would be released.  So I gave in and visited a travel agent.

STA tavel was where I ended up after deciding that it was the closest and easiest, while also geared up and aimed towards people in my situation (lost, confused, youngish and wanting something familiarly different).  They cheerfully gave me a Contiki Europe 2013-2014 brochure and sent me on my way.  Getting home, opening the 50 page book and finding the trip I wanted, I discovered that the brochure did not cover 2014 either.  This time I emailed them and asked.

To sum up the result, I found out that the dates had not been released but they would tell me when they had.

A couple of weeks later I got an email telling me that the dates would be released in September but that they would get the dates before the general public.  If I paid them $250 then I could get VIP treatment and guaranteed access to the trip I wanted while also scoring the early-bird special of 13% off the total cost.

Payment made, now waiting on dates.  Then just flights, insurance...

The first breath

Well this is the first time I have ever done something like this.  Putting my life online seems strange to me, but will soon become crucial for contact with people.  Hopefully this will act as a travel journal for me and allow me to keep family and friends up to date on what I am doing when I do not have time to contact people individually.  At least that is how I hope it will work.  Who knows what will eventually happen with it...

So, what is the idea.  Next year (2014) I am looking at travelling to Europe to live, explore, have fun, hopefully get lost, meet people and generally see what else there is outside of these little islands in the South Pacific.  After being told off by a sister for not telling her directly what I was planning, and relying on the family gossip mill (successfully), I thought by making information available here she can check for herself and others can find out too.

So far not much is sorted.  I know that I have to sort out a myriad of things from trips, flights, insurance and money to visas, packing up a life here and saying painful goodbyes.

A general sketched outline of what I plan on doing is, next March pack up and fly to London.  Spend a week finding my feet there and sorting important arrival issues, before spending a couple of months doing a flying tour of Europe's tourist highlights.  To do this I am thinking of doing the "Ultimate European including Egypt" trip offered by Contiki.  A 45 day trip getting a brief introduction to different parts of Europe to see which parts I would like to go back and visit properly.  Afterwards is less clear.  I will head back to the United Kingdom and recover from my disconnect from reality.  Might try to visit some friends and family while trying to sort out a job.  They haven't been warned of this yet, so who knows.  After that is the open sky of possibilities.

Lets see what happens.