Strong Green Mitts

I figure I'm strong enough to do this trip alone (as per photo here), but if my buddy Beth comes with me, we could double our strength and become superhuman travellers with some serious spunk. No pressure Beth, but it would be awesome if you came too.... People keep asking me if that photo of the camera under surgery from the other day is off the internet. Nope, it really is my camera. Yikes.... Now it's all in a ziplock bag ready to be shipped to the morgue.

Need a Camera

Um... So, my old digital camera got some sand in the lens this past summer while I was getting dropped off by a helicopter on a remote beach on the north coast of BC (long story) and it hasn't been able to work since then... I called a few places about getting it fixed, and it appears that it would cost more to fix the camera than it is worth. In classic "Dee Family Style", I began to take it apart myself. Now it looks like a sad robot under surgery, and the doctors fear the worst. He's dead, and we can't put him back together. I'll have a farewell ceremony later, but for now I'm on the search for a new camera. My preference is to get myself a kick-ass digital SLR, since I classify myself as a photographer, but it will likely cost too much (at least $1000), unless I buy used.... Or, I just toss out a couple hundred dollars to get myself a little digital point and shoot, which will come in handy during my travels if it fits into my jeans pocket... Dilemma, dilemma...

Packing One Bag: Round 1

Oh, the wonderful challenges of packing a single bag... I've been thinking about what to bring with me to the land of the kiwis for a while now. The ideas floating around vary between being super prepared to packing as little as possible. For example, I was thinking of packing my down jacket which would keep me warm during the winter months and double as a soft and very welcome pillow while camping or staying in hostels. Do I bring my heavy four-season tent or go buy the rediculously light Hubba Hubba tent (2.1kg) from MEC? Do I bring a tent at all? Should I use my 70-litre pack or my 50-litre pack? All in all, what I bring directly depends on what I plan to do while I am in New Zealand. Isn't there some mathematical equation I can use here? Instead of spending copious hours trying to identify the correct variables for an optimally packed bag, I will follow the advice of my friend, Greg, from Canmore, AB who suggested I look up a website about packing a single bag for travellers. The One Bag website written by Doug Dyment appears to be a useful tool in deciphering what's required, what to ditch, and what you can't afford to forget - oh, and trying to fit it all into one wee-bag. My specific situation is a bit different because I plan to camp and hike quite a bit while I am travelling, so I will use the online suggestions to assist in tayloring my own list of essential materials. Being a bit of a perfectionist and somewhat severely detail-oriented (yes, I totally admit it and actually am a bit proud of my meticulousness), I plan to write and revise my own list, then pack and re-pack until it appears to be perfect for me, and not too heavy. Heck, what else am I going to do for the next 29 days?

Ticket Purchased

After making the decision to further postpone finding 'real' work and instead spend the better part of the next year discovering and working in New Zealand, I did some online research trying to find a cheap ticket. It turns out Air New Zealand has an array of special offers, and even though there are plenty of restrictions, somehow I managed to fit into a bracket of some sort and got a ticket from Vancouver, BC to Auckland, NZ for a decent amount of cash: around $1500 including all taxes and fees. Based on the prices I found online from other carriers, this was a sweeeet deal. Impending departure date: November 22, 2006. In the moment of realization that one of my lifelong dreams is actually going to come true, and there was no turning back, I felt like a million little beams of electricity were shooting through my body in excitement at the unlimited possibilities and the vast unknown. At the same time, I felt a paradoxical sense of calmness, a sense of clarity, a feeling deep inside that emanated the fact that "Yes, this is the right decision." And lastly, I just felt the need to scream, "HOLY SHIT!" So what now? I've got a month to get my absolute necessities packed into one bag, get my passport renewed, apply for a Canadian Working Holiday Scheme (a.k.a. holiday working visa) from New Zealand Immigration and research the things I think I'd like to discover and experience in New Zealand...