What's Next?

I'm sure many of you would like to know what is next on my journey through life. I don't know if I can really answer that, but I can share with you some of my thoughts, dreams and ideas for the next year. Before I get too far on this remember how far I came in the past 12 months (finished my MBA, sold my home, quit a job I worked for almost 5 years, came to Antarctica to shovel snow, worked at the South Pole for two weeks...). I am not ready to give up my adventure just yet!

It is not definite yet, but it looks like I will be leaving shortly after we are done offloading all our cargo from the ship which is planned for the 15th Feb. When I arrive in NZ I'm not sure what exactly I'll be doing, but here is a punch list:

• Couch surfing
• WWOOFing around the south island
• Hitchhiking
• Taking a Paragliding course
• Caving
• Tramping aka backpacking
• Meeting new people and enjoying adventures with old
• Making it back to the states around May
• Hopefully I'll get a summer job as a wild land firefighter out west somewhere
• Get back to the ice sometime between Aug and Oct

For the longest time (since I was a freshman at Alaska Pacific University), I have wanted to go paragliding. NZ is famous for paragliding and I plan on dropping the cash to take the course. I don't really want to spend that much money, but as my friend Brody put it, I "didn't come here for the money, but for the adventure." The cheapest school (may not be the best selective factor) is on the North Island. I was going to take the inter-island ferry up but found out it cost $72nz for a one way ticket. I looked up air travel and from CHCH I can fly to Wellington on the North Island for $27nz (~$20.75us). So as a no-brainer, I bought the ticket and hopefully the plan follows through.

I am not going to rent a car in NZ since I won't have that kind of money. I could buy a cheap car and sell it for the same price when I leave, but then I would have to insure and register it. So I am going to travel by thumb. I did it a bunch in AK and apparently NZ is very hitchiker friendly.

Besides going paragliding, I want to travel around the South Island and see some of the towns. For this I've decided I will go WWOOFing. WWOOFing stands for Willing Workers On Organic Farms (aka World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms). I paid the $40nz for the "passport" that lists 1000+ farms around the country. All I have to do is email or call a farm and see if they have openings. If they do I show up and for 4-6hrs of daily work, I will get free room and board. I have gone through the book and found cool places like, micro brewery, vineyard, mud brick factory, deer farm, little place on an island and many others. Sounds like a good cheap way to travel.

As for couch surfing, this is a great thing my friend "Hitch Hiker Ben" taught me about. After going online, I was able to create a profile that is entered into a database. When going to a new town, I look up the city on the web page and it gives me a list of available couches. I email the people until I find someone willing to give me a couch. I then have a free place to stay for a night or two. I know, many of you think this is crazy (Dad, Grama), but it's all part of the adventure and it isn't as sketchy as it sounds.

Since NZ is so beautiful, I couldn't possibly leave without making a trek into the backcountry. I'm hoping to do 2-3 backpacking trips. So far I only know one that is a must and it is a four day costal hike. For $45nz, I'll take a boat taxi out to the start of the tramp. I'll then spend four wonderful days walking on the beach and on small hills along the shore. It will be nice to have my feet in the warm sand. While tramping, I'm thinking I'll pick up a fishing license and do a little world class trout fishing. NZ in home to some of the biggest browns.

After playing in NZ for a little while, I will make my way back home to good old VT. I hope to spend a week or so there and visit friends and family. I even hope to make it down to the "Upper Valley." After this I will go see my cute niece Ella before heading West to some place where I hope to get a fire fighting job. I've applied all over Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Washington, and Oregon. I hope one of them turns up something or I'll just have to resort to playing the guitar on the street for pocket change (joke). I know that adventure is back in my blood and I feel like I did when I lived in AK. There are a lot of cool places out there and I want to see them all after living and working in the "coolest" (little pun).