I know it’s been a while since I’ve updated (isn’t that how my blog posts always start?) and a huge number of changes have happened since then. In early December, I wasn’t even sure if I was going to be making my trip to New Zealand at all because of a job offer with an Australian firm in Houston, who told me that I might be able to transfer to Oz within a year or two of commencing employment with them. However, my start date was going to be the middle of January.

Then I got a phone call from Schlumberger, who I interned with for the latter half of 2007, offering me a job at their office in Perth. The offer was really good and I knew that Schlumberger was a company that would treat me well…and plus, it didn’t hurt that the offer was in Australia! Although I’ve never been to Perth and it’s a 5 hour flight from Brisbane (it’s roughly the equivalent distance from NY-LA), I’ve only heard good things about it. So, I eventually took the offer and have spent a good portion of the last month rounding up documents for my visa (from birth certificates to sending my fingerprints to the FBI to prove I’m not a criminal), going to doctors to prove I am physically fit (and having to get 6 shots in the process), and frantically packing.

An added bonus of the job at Schlumberger is that my start date is within 4 weeks of my visa getting approved. Apparently the Australian Immigration Department is taking about 8-12 weeks to approve some applications, so while I’m waiting for the grant, I’m going to New Zealand! It was great to find out that the trip I’d given up for dead was still possible.

I’ve managed to squeeze a fair amount of family time in amongst all the chaos of moving, which is good, since James came over from Australia for Christmas and New Year’s and my grandparents came in from England for the latter. It really was a fun Christmas break, and James & I managed to get a fair amount of traveling in (we went to San Antonio, then Austin for New Year’s, then to Galveston twice to go to Moody Gardens and the new Schlitterbahn). To top it all off, we took a short trip up to Rice. As a backstory, When freshman matriculate at Rice, they walk in the Sallyport (big archway in a building at the front of Rice), and it is said to be bad luck if you walk back out before you graduate. Since I’m not going to be here to walk, I ran through the Sallyport with my family watching to celebrate being finally finished for good!

So I have 5 days left until the big trip begins. My backpack is fully packed (minus toiletries) and currently weighs about 28lbs (including tent and sleeping bag but minus the stuff in my small carryon, like my NZ Lonely Planets, my journal, and my camera), so it should weigh maybe 35 pounds when all the food and everything is stuffed in there when I arrive. I’ve put it on and it’s not too bad…while I’m walking slowly around the house. It might be a completely different story when I’m 3/4 of the way through an 80-mile hike!

It’s hard to believe that it’s starting so soon. All of my friends have gone back to university, law school, med school, and the like, and I’m strapping on hiking boots and heading for hobbit land. That said, I’m thrilled about going and can’t wait to finally land in the Garden City of Christchurch. I started writing a travel journal today but haven’t gotten very far because I keep distracting myself with NZ websites. It’s fortunate that I’m not actually in school anymore, because Cristina, Megan, and I all did the same thing when planning our original foray into the land of the long white cloud in 2005…but it was a couple weeks before finals! Needless to say, our grades did not approve.

I’m trying not to overplan, since a lot of the fun is taken out of traveling if you book everything ahead of time and don’t leave time for those things you see/hear about doing when you arrive. However, I have a basic itinerary that takes me in a clockwise circle around the South Island, starting in Christchurch. I might not stick to it, but I’ve just roughly sketched out what I’d like to do and how long it will take. So far, the only part of my itinerary that’s set in stone is the first few days, since there were a couple activities that required pre-booking that I didn’t want to miss out on. I’ll be going to:

Christchurch: the biggest city on the South Island and the one I found to be most like a small British town (full of gardens and Cathedrals); I’ll mainly be catching up on sleep here.
Akaroa: an originally French settlement on the Banks Peninsula near Christchurch; staying 2 days, hopefully doing some sailing and mountain biking.
Kaikoura: a small coastal town at the base of the Kaikoura ranges (which we didn’t see last time because of fog) that is an absolute wildlife paradise. Dolphins and whales abound just off the coast, and I’ll be doing a sunrise dolphin swim.
Picton: the South Island port for the Interislander ferry and my starting base for the Queen Charlotte Track, a 4-day hike along the Queen Charlotte Sound that Picton sits at the base of.

Well, that’s about all for now, but I do promise to keep this updated while I’m going along. It probably won’t be anything near as long as this post (for which most of you, if you’ve even made it this far, are sighing a big sigh of relief), but I’ll try to at least post a few photos and anecdotes!