Thursday 23 February 2012

The whys, whats and wheres of this trip and blog...




What:
Hi! I' m Sarah, and this is my travel blog.
About 8 months ago myself and Leigh (the boyfriend who will probably feature a fair bit in this blog as he'll be right along with me) decided to take a trip.

Our best friend and room mate Peter was moving to New Zealand in a few weeks, and another 3 friends of ours were planning to head off in a few months to Australia on a working holiday visa. We initally thought we'd go on a holiday to visit them for a few weeks, and after alot of tooing and froing we eventually asked ourselves “Why don't we go for the year too?”, and when we had absolutely no reason not to we decided we would follow them out and head off on our own trip. We initially thought we might go with them in November, but Leigh's sister Hazel decided to announce this beautiful guy was on the way, so we put it off until March. SOOOOO glad we did as we couldn't imagine having not met him. Look at that face!!!

So, we are off on March 2nd on a 1 year Working Holiday Visa to Australia.
Where
We arrive in Bangkok on March 3rd where we have 3 weeks of sun, sea, sand, and general relaxation and adventure, and then we fly into Sydney on the 27th, where we'll meet our best friend, and current Wellington, NZ resident, Peter for some much needed hugs, beers and sight seeing for a week or 2.
After that our plans are totally open, we just want to see as much of Australia as we can in our year.
We want to see new landscapes, experience new cultures, eat new foods, SEE THE SUN, travel in new ways, and basically just see and do as much as we can. I like the idea of a semi-nomadic life for a while and am looking forward to a bit of an adventure.

Why the blog? Well 2 of my best friends, Sinead and Shane, both made blogs on recent trips of theirs (well Sinead's is still going). When Shane started his he said the reason he did was... Curiosity, because I was told to, and because Sinead started it. Let the War of The Blogs begin!!! And who am I to not accept that challenge. But mainly I enjoy(ed) their blogs so much, keeping up to date and reading about their experiences, that I wanted to try it myself. I'm also a travel blog junkie, and love finding one I haven't read before and learning from and enjoying their experiences and advice. Anyway I thought I'd give it go. Hopefully some of my friends and family can keep up to date with what I'm doing, and I figured it would be a good place to put up some pictures, and if anyone else stops by and enjoys it then bonus points!


Bucket list for the trip:
-Learn to dive...and hopefully get my Padi licence. We have a rough plan to do the Padi course in Koh Tao, Thailand, and then hopefully we'll get to do some diving in the Great Barrier Reef. (I cannot believe this could very well be happening in the near future!!!)
-Go snorkelling in the great barrier reef
-See as much sea life and animals as i can lay my eyes on. If there's an option to snorkel, visit a zoo, farm, or aquarium I wanna be there!
-Jump out of a plane.
-Get a sun tan!!! Or as much as my Irish skin will allow!
-Visit Summer Bay. (The town where Home and Away is set.)
-Live like a local in Australia for at least a little while.
-Make new friends.
-Eat as many new foods as I can.
-Change my life style. I want to break bad, lazy habits, and get out there doing stuff.
-Learn to surf. I'm definately not what you'd call a coordinated person, so I'm not expecting much, but even just a lesson on 2 to give it a whirl.
-Take LOADS of photos! This is something I always want to do, but am awful at following through at. I get shy taking people's photos, lazy at charging my battery, and have never had a good camera, and I've just never been as good at is as I've have liked. So on this trip I have bought a new camera (Panasonic Lumix GF3) and I am going to use the heck out of it. I'm hoping this blog will work as an excuse to make me take and post some nice snaps. Must learn to use it now....hmm.
-Keep in touch with people. I must make a concerted effort to keep in touch with friends and family back home, as well as hopefuly people we meet along the way.
-Do things that scare me.
-Write. This blog, scripts, anything. It's something I keep meaning to do since college, but keep finding excuses not to spend the time doing. Must give it a go.

Wow, that was long...sorry for boring anyone who actually made it to the end!
Also...apologies for my excessive use of exclamation marks!!! Get used to it though, I'm an exclaimation mark addict.

1 week to go. :)




2 comments:

  1. Awesome post Sarah!! I'm so excited for you, you're going to have an amazing time...love the bucket list :) You can do it! x

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  2. Absolutely so JEALOUS! Can not wait for future blogs and updates! Its also making me think twice about traveling, ya never know, maybe someday :) Have a Blast Leigh & Sarah.

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