The Marathon begins

I have the next three days to finish all my work and get packed and ready to fly to Australia! Yikes.

Now I realize that many people have made similar trips before, but it's my first time, so there's a lot to do. I've flown before, -- to Mexico, Costa Rica, and even to France -- but nothing is quite like the long-distance travel I'm prepping for on Thursday.

What I know is: the flight leaves from the Harrisburg airport on Thursday at 12:50 p.m., flies to Chicago, then to Los Angeles, where the trans-pacific flight laves at 10:30 LA time (which feels like 1:30 in PA time!) I'll land 14 hours later in Sydney, at 8:30 local time, but my body clock will be saying 4:30 p.m.

I'm really looking forward to seeing old friends and mentors Rhonda and Richard Sampson, who moved from my hometown in NY, my church, my life, when I was a preteen to live near Rhonda's family in Australia and raise their family down under. It's been a life-long dream to go see them, so since Perry's semester abroad took him to New Zealand this fall, I thought I'd just add a little leg to the trip and stop over and visit them for a few days. I'll be staying with the Sampsons at their place in Port MacQuarie, about 4 hours north of Sydney on the coast. It'll be their "summer" Christmas vacation season, and the weather there is comparable to northern Florida in summer, so a bit of a climate change too!

So, then Dec 9th, I'll fly to NZ and meet up with Perry's friend Katie Lesher, who's currently a junior at Seattle Pacific University. The plan is to rent the campervan at the airport and drive north from Christchurch to Kaikoura, where Perry's home base has been this semester: the Old Convent. His last day of classes is the 9th, and most of his classmates are flying home on the 10th.

NZ is a bit further south than Australia, so the heat won't be as intense, but it's still their summer time, with long lazy warm days, short nights, and generally less rain than the rest of the year. We're planning to trek about on the South Island for about a week, see as much of the natural wonders and incredible beauty of the island paradise as we can before crossing on the ferry to the North Island, see the sights and fly out of Auckland on Monday, Dec 20th.

My goal is to post updates and photos as I am able, so check back again in a week and see what's new. Or you can subscribe to this blog, and you'll get an email alert when something changes here.

-Geoff