Short dark days, snow, ice, rain, thermal clothing, and big heating bills. Needless to say, I’m not a big fan of the British winter. Fortunately this year I’ll be avoiding these nuisances for an entire month – trading in the bitter cold for stunning landscapes and scorching sun.
The plan is to fly out to New Zealand in December (with a brief stopover in Tokyo), hire a camper van and spend 2 weeks exploring the South Island. Ever since watching the first Lord of the Rings film (cliche, I know) New Zealand is a country I’ve always wanted to visit, so I’m pretty excited it’s finally happening. After Christmas we’ll then fly over to Sydney for the new year celebrations. Once we’ve seen 2016 in, the remainder of the trip will be spent visiting Melbourne, Uluru, Cairns, Darwin, Bali, before finally heading home. Phew!
Naturally this trip wont come cheap, and as someone who’s pretty frugal with money, forking out a slightly insane amount for flights this weekend was painful! On the other hand I probably won’t get another opportunity to do this, so it’s kind of a now or never situation. As the Lonely Island would say, ‘you only live once’. It will also provide my girlfriend and I with some much needed motivation to get us through the year! Time to start saving the pennies…
Tom Eden 