The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.

I believe in my dreams, and lo and behold, working towards those dreams just opened up an abundance of new opportunities!

Flying an airplane has been a long-time dream of mine, and looking through my Lonely Planet guidebook, I found a bunch of people crazy enough to let me do it! The best part? It only costs around 100$ per flight! I think I'll have three.


I registered and posted on the HUBB forum, an adventure-biker website, announcing my trip and asking if anyone wanted to ride with me for part of it. Already, I've spoken with several people interested in helping me. Particularly one guy in Adelaide who's offered to pick me up from the airport, let me stay at his place for a couple of nights, and help buy and fix up a ride. Awesome! What a great way to meet the locals.

But why stop there? Two days ago, a friend suggested looking at the couchsurfing.com site. This site is a portal which connects travellers who need a place to stay, with people (often travellers themselves) who has a spare couch for a night or two. The site is not just about cheap accommodation, it's about bringing people together, understanding foreign cultures, and building friendships across continents. I looked up Christchurch, a city slightly smaller than Copenhagen, and found no less than 120 people who were offering their couch or bed to travellers. I want to use this site as much as possible on my trip, sleeping at hostels only when couchsurfing isn't possible. It's going to save me a lot of money and, even more importantly, it sounds like a grand adventure in itself! Now that's a great way to meet the locals!


I was a bit concerned about how I would go about about blogging while down there. Sitting at an internet café for 2-3 hours a couple of times a week would be an expensive waste of time. That's why i bought myself a tiny little laptop. It measures only 22*27*3, fitting snugly in my daypack, and I got it for a good price. It's arriving Monday, and I can't wait.

Speaking of Monday, my bank will have finished looking through my papers and will (hopefully, but I'm not really doubting it) greenlight the loan. That means that I buy my ticket Monday!


I soon have all the important stuff I need for the trip. My brother gave me a very nice backpack for my birthday, and I bought myself a very cheap, yet very rugged, rucksack. A cheap set of binoculars await pickup at the post-office, my mini-laptop arrives Monday, and my digital camera arrives sometime next week.


Finally, the route for the first leg of my trip, covering the south island of New Zealand, is done. I've taken the time to make it into a google map as this makes it easier for me to get a good overview during planning, and it's a great way to let you browse the route. Many of the placemarks only have short notes about what I want to see, but I'll try to give them more sense later. Additionally, when I'm down there, I'll update the placemarks with links to blogposts covering that specific part of the route. I love google!

The placemarks are colorcoded:
RED: absolute must see! The cities I arrive in/leave from will also be marked in red.
BLUE: Interesting. I'm going here.
TURQUOISE: Could be interesting. I'll visit here if time permits.
GREEN: Lord of the rings shooting locations. I'm a geek, I know.
The placemarks are arranged chronologycally.