There are many ways to escape the excruciatingly frigid British winters. You could bash yourself over the head with a big rock in the hope of inducing a coma that lasted just long enough to wear off when summer comes around. Another option might be to simply lock yourself indoors all day with the heating up and cover the windows up with poster sized photographs of tropical summer scenes. Or perhaps you could leave the country, leave the continent, leave the entire hemisphere or just attempt to get as far away from the country as humanly possible.
Since I didn't have enough posters for all the windows and there were no rocks lying around I was forced to choose the last option. I did in actual fact decide get as far away from the UK as I could. New Zealand and Australia to be precise. I really cannot overstate just how far from the UK that is. The only way a person could put more distance between themselves and the UK would be to go into space. New Zealand is on the opposite side of the entire planet. Visiting there literally involves being whisked off in a plane and being deposited on the other side of this gargantuan celestial body, stopping only to refuel because no commercial plane can hold enough fuel to make it all in one go. It doesn't matter whether you go via the US or ASIA, it's the same distance either way, that's how far away it is!
Did I mention New Zealand is quite far away?
It seems that the paltry amount of time I spent in New Zealand during my antipodean adventure holiday last November/December was only enough to whet my appetite for the place. So I booked tickets back there only this time I wanted to stay far longer. Although I knew I wanted to spend plenty of time hiking I only had a rough idea of where and what order I wanted to do things in and through studious research I discovered, much to my delight, that New Zealand is a great country for going on holiday without a very specific game plan. They have some of the best backpacker hostels in the world, an almost absurd number of national parks, great bus services and as of right now their exchange rate is very much in the favour of someone who mainly earns US dollars.
I chose to buy a bus ticket within a company called Kiwi Experience. For a surprisingly low price you can purchase a pass that is valid for a whole year and covers the entire country. Also it is possible to hop on/hop off at any time. Thanks to the ubiquitous nature of New Zealand's excellent backpacker hostels it is rare that accommodation cannot be found and the buses can be booked at short notice and for free (since the pass is already paid and covers everything).
So with all that in mind it's little wonder I don't have a specific itinerary planned. I've outlined all the potential places of interest in the map shown below but I have no idea what order I'll be doing them in. One thing is certain though and that is I'll be doing an awful lot of hiking (another thing New Zealand is known for).
My itinerary in Australia is much more planned out however. It is possible to acquire a prepaid pass to cover much of the country but they're an awful lot more expensive which is quite fair when you think about how enormous the place is. So instead I'm planning on taking the coast route from Sydney to Adelaide via Melbourne.
Once I reach Adelaide though, the adventure really begins. I'm booking an outback safari tour that meanders it's way north through the desert through some amazing sights. The highlight of the tour is sure to be Uluru or Ayers Rock as it used to be known.
After that I'm sure I'll be completely out of money so it'll probably be time to go back to getting paid to go on holiday and travel the world!
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