As I lounge in my bed, looking at my half packed luggage for my latest business trip, I decided I wanted to blog about my upcoming trip. So, here I am blogging, hopefully I'm doing this right...probably not, oh well! I figured it would be a good way to keep my friends and family in the loop as I trek across the land down under. My trip doesn't start for another 2 months, but I've been planning this trip for roughly 2 years, so you can imagine my excitement. This is my first solo traveling trip and I'll be spending about 4 weeks in Australia and New Zealand. Now as the time begins to dwindle, I'm constantly asking myself did I book everything I need? What am I going to bring? When am I going to get all my appointments in? Am I going to accidentally melt another flat iron? (probably) Do I need to get anymore shots before I go? Am I going to over pack? Yes, because I am a chronic over-packer. I've officially booked and reserved everything I'll be needing, so now it's time to wait.
Waiting is the worst.
For those of you who aren't aware here's a quick rundown of my path:
Thanksgiving day I'll begin my flights to Auckland, New Zealand. Once I land, I'll be meeting up with a Contiki group for a few days to tour Auckland & Paihia. (Side note: Contiki is a 18-35 backpacking group) Once I'm back in Auckland, I'll be grabbing a car and driving to Rotorua and Wellington. I didn't have enough time to see the south island, so from Wellington I'll be flying over to Melbourne (pronounced Mel-binn, gotta start working on my pronunciation of cities). Once in Melbourne, I will spend my time searching for a platypus. How much do I love platypi? The limit does not exist (sorry, but you had to know I'd throw at least one Mean Girls reference in here). Then comes the longest trek of the journey, the 10 hour drive up the coast from Melbourne to Canberra (lord give me strength). Then it's on to Sydney where I'll ditch the car and take flights to my last two cities: Brisbane & Cairns. I get back to Chicago the Monday before Christmas & I already know this jetlag is going to be a bitch.
So far the reactions to telling people that I'm taking a month off of work to road trip Australia by myself has been mixed. 100% of the people I have talked to are excited and jealous of the trip, because it truly is the trip of a lifetime. But there is a small amount (re: family) that is nervous and not too happy I'm taking on this trip alone. I get it, I'm a young woman backpacking Australia alone, but that's not going to stop me. Aren't you nervous? Are you really that safe? Why don't you wait to have someone who can come along with you? How the hell are you going to drive on the other side of the road? Well of course I'm nervous, I'm terrified, but isn't that the point? I want to see what I'm made of, if I can truly be alone with myself for a month. I'm taking this opportunity to do a little soul searching and see if I'm as strong as I believe myself to be. I'd like to think I'll be safe there, but that's not something you know in advance, so I'll hope for the best and plan for the worst. As for the driving....well we'll see how that one works out when I get there (god bless zero dollar deductibles!). This trip is a big deal and I can't wait to see what it has in store for me.
#AnnasAustralianAdventure
