Many people reading this will be wondering what I am planning to do with my university-educated, career-free, travel-obsessed self in the coming year. The plan is not set in stone yet, but here it is, with commentary.
My plan is to get a working holiday visa for New Zealand. These are visas which allow you to travel and work as a temporary or part-time employee in New Zealand for a specified amount of time (in this case, a year). I know quite a few people who have done this before, and I have yet to hear anyone say it wasn't worth doing.
Why New Zealand? I've always been curious about it, and since becoming interested in rugby, it has drawn my interest even more (New Zealand is home to the All Blacks, always one of the best rugby teams in the world). It also has a large agricultural sector (more sheep than people), another of my areas of interest. And it is mostly rural, from what I've read, which is yet another of my preferences. I think many of the things I will like about New Zealand are things I like about Ireland and Scotland. Like green hills and entertaining accents. Obviously, that is a huge simplification, but I want to see exactly how much of a simplification it is.
New Zealand will also play host to the next Rugby World Cup in September. My brief pipe dream of seeing the 2010 Soccer World Cup in South Africa didn't last long, but hopefully I'll be able to make this one happen. In fact, Canada is playing the All Blacks on my birthday in Wellington. Canada's going to get crushed, but that's some kind of coincidence. (Side note: I had to be in Cleveland for my 17th birthday, but it so happened that Bruce Springsteen was playing a concert at Gund Arena on that exact day. Another great coincidence. And yeah, I went. I still have the shirt.)
But working in New Zealand is only half the story. Partly because of environmental concerns and pent-up guilt over the amount of flying I've done over the past four years, partly because of curiosity, and partly because of a desire to avoid a hellish 21-hour flight in economy class, I've decided to go to New Zealand without flying. You might ask how that's possible, New Zealand being a series of islands in the South Pacific. The answer is freighters. I had no interest in taking a cruise ship, but freighters regularly cross the Pacific and pass through New Zealand and Australia. They no longer allow you to "work a passage," but they do allow you to pay for a cabin and ride with them. The cost includes three meals a day and access to the crew's leisure facilities (these guys live on the ship, so they need something to do). The whole journey will take around 15 days, and hopefully be an experience I'll remember forever.
Of course, if I'm to go to New Zealand without flying, I'll also need to meet the freighter at a port in North America. The one I'm looking at leaves from Long Beach, CA. And if I don't want to fly at all on my way to New Zealand, I'll need to get from North Bay, ON to Long Beach, CA by land. So this means a cross-country train journey. My dad will be joining me for this stretch of the trip.
So here, tentatively, are the stages of my journey from North Bay, ON, to Tauranga, New Zealand:
1. Two-day drive from North Bay to Chicago, IL with my dad to visit my aunt Judi.
2. 50-hour train ride from Chicago to Sacramento, CA with my dad, passing through Nebraska (the only state he hasn't been to) along the way.
3. 11-hour train ride from Sacramento to Los Angeles, CA, to meet the freighter by July 7th. We're still unsure about where we'll be staying and whether or not we'll rent a car to get around the LA area, but my dad has a cousin in Santa Barbara whose doorstep we may darken.
4. 15-day journey by freighter to Tauranga, NZ.
If all goes according to plan, I should be in New Zealand by late July of this year. If this works, hopefully people will stop calling me crazy.
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