As the title might suggest, one week from this very moment I will be sitting on a plane on my merry way to New Zealand. Not directly, of course; I will be staying for two days in Hong Kong! And I've got to be honest: excitement is gathering like a snowball halfway down the hill! I think by Thursday morning I might burst!
It's been quite a strange trip in planning, this one. I've been meaning to do it for quite a while; way before USA. My plan when I returned from America was to look at going in late June/early July. Sadly, that didn't happen for a number of reasons, mainly procrastination, so I changed said plans to late July. Then, as I started to sort out the necessary paperwork at the beginning of July, sod's law intervened, as it usually does. The visa application form asked if I had spent 3 months or more in the last five years in a country that was not on the provided list. Botswana wasn't on it. So I had to go and get myself a chest X-Ray at the cost of £95. NINETY-FIVE POUNDS!! The hospital sent off the form for me, to New Zealand Immigration, who took more than two weeks to reply.
I was getting more anxious by the day. I couldn't book the flights until I had the Working Holiday Visa confirmed. And at the start of this process the flights were already £800. With it being the summer and with a Rugby World Cup on the way, I knew that they would get dearer and dearer and worried that it might have become prohibitively so.
Fortunately, the confirmation arrived last Monday, and I booked my flights that day. At £700! That was lucky! I also booked somewhere in Hong Kong for two nights, and through BUNAC I now have two nights for free in Auckland. Hooray!
As mentioned above, I am getting very excited!!
It is also worth mentioning that I have made a few changes to the blog. First of all, it's slightly wider. Mainly so I can now post bigger pictures on my updates. Secondly, I've moved a few things around on the right hand side; you can now choose to read entries from certain trips on their own; there's also the option to read a random entry.
Thirdly, also new on the right, I've added two new pages. First of which is dedicated to Muhammad The Monkey - an ongoing photographic chronicle of all his movements! I found some pictures going back to 2006, when we first started travelling together. I'll endeavour to keep it updated with the latest pictures next to international "Welcome To" signs, famous landmarks and possibly celebrities (doubtful). The second is Things I've Learned, again an ongoing list of things that I've learned on my travels, dating back to my Africa trip. I've put quite a lot of effort into both of these pages including a lot of coding to get them looking how I want them, so I hope you enjoy them!
Finally, you might notice that there's some adverts dotted around. Essentially, they're there because Google will give me a penny every few clicks or so (if that), and eventually, in a few years or so, I will earn a pound! Feel free to ignore them, especially you Grandma(s), as they will just break the internet.
So there you go! I'm ready to go! There's a quite few people I won't be able to see before I go, which I feel very sad about, and I will miss certain people dearly, but I will definitely make sure I see you when I come home in May/June/July next year.
That's enough banging on for now; I'm going to have an afternoon nap so that I've got enough energy for the big sleep.
Toodles.
Ian x
P.S -
DId I mention I'm extremely excited?
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