Welcome to our
blog! Keith and I are going on a big
adventure beginning this December and we’d like to share some of our experiences
through this blog. We’ve been
planning this journey for about a year now and we can’t believe it’s almost
here!
Keith and I got
married on December 29, 2010. Both of us
enjoy travel and share adventurous spirits, but we have slightly different
travel preferences, so we weren’t sure what it would look like for us as a couple
 |
The Eagle's Nest
Berchtesgaden, Germany |
We would soon find out as we embarked on a
one-month backpacking trip through Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, and Hungary in
June of 2011. It was a success…which, of
course, means I started planning our next overseas trip…or rather, an overseas
move! Keith, being the laid back,
relaxed guy that he is, took it all in stride until he realized that I was
serious. I wanted to move to somewhere in
Africa or Europe, but Keith wasn’t so sure.
He wanted to live in Canada and take frequent trips to other
places. In September 2012, a difficult
job experience prompted me to think about other options. I still wanted to move overseas and Keith
still didn’t. I wanted to learn about
other cultures and languages and especially history. Keith wanted to climb mountains. I don’t quite remember how it came about, but
somewhere along the way, Keith made some kind of comment about not wanting to
move...unless it was to B.C. or New Zealand.
Well, I wanted to move overseas.
B.C. was still in Canada. So, I
thought about it and decided to look into moving to New Zealand. It seemed very unrealistic to me at first,
but I’m a dreamer so being realistic doesn’t really matter. Through my research, however, I discovered a
way for Keith and I to move to New Zealand for a short time. Our answer was Working Holiday Visas. As Working Holiday Visa holders we would be able
to live and work in New Zealand for one year.
After some prayer and discussion, we made the decision to apply for the
visas and then see what happened. If we
didn’t get accepted, then that would be our answer. Exactly a week later, we received e-mails
from New Zealand immigration informing us that our applications were accepted
and we were now allowed to move to New Zealand!
Since that day we’ve been thinking about, dreaming about, researching,
and planning our trip to New Zealand.
Our trip has developed and we’ve added a Botswana/South Africa segment
onto it, as well as a short layover trip to Bali before arriving in New
Zealand. While this isn’t a missions
trip, we feel God leading us to New Zealand and we are super excited about the
plans he has for us as we prepare for the journey, as we travel to New Zealand
and through other countries, and once we arrive there!
Our trip will begin
on December 8 as we fly from Toronto to Jo’burg (South Africa), where we will
meet up with Steph and Kev. From there
we will drive north to Gaborone (Botswana), where we will see Nate and Taryn.
Below is a basic
itinerary of our travels:
December 8 –
departure from Canada
December 10-26 –
travelling around Botswana with Steph, Kev, Nate, and Taryn
December 27-January
13 – travelling around South Africa with Steph, Kev, Nate, and Taryn
January 13 –
departure from South Africa
January 15-20 –
Bali
January 22 –
arrival in Auckland, New Zealand
January 23-February –
travel around northern New Zealand, slowly making our way down to Christchurch
February, 2014-Spring, 2015 – live and work in Christchurch, and travel around New
Zealand (also fly to Australia in May, 2014 for Aunt Jo’s wedding!)
I am already beginning to
feel sentimental and sad about leaving, but we feel so blessed to be going on
this trip and I’m so glad that technology enables us to communicate so easily!
