Introduction - Part I: Over the Edge

Travel is not an uncommon interest. “I like to travel,” people say, and then usually follow up the statement with a list of places they have gone, the places they would like to go to, and the means by which they have travelled or would like to travel. I’ve had travelling listed as an interest on many of my online personae. And every time I included that term in my profiles, I’ve felt as though I was lying, just a little.

This uncomfortable sense of deception is due to the fact that I have done very little travelling in my short life, and none of it is what I would consider “serious” travel. Certainly, I’ve been to locales other than my hometown in Alberta, Canada – a few days in Las Vegas with my parents, an Alaskan cruise, a school trip to Quebec when I was in middle school, ski excursions, and visiting in-laws in Ontario, among other things. Of course, I must include the penchant my husband and I have for road trips. We have been exploring around the Rocky Mountains in summer and winter, taken road trips to the west coast of Canada, and had a memorable bus-ferried jaunt around Portland, Oregon.

These trips, however, do not fall into the realm of serious travel. For us, travel has generally consisted of relatively short excursions, most taken in childhood when we still enjoyed the luxury of having our expenses covered by our parents. Now that we are all grown up, we have swapped parent-chaperoned trips for mooching lodging off of our out-of-town friends. While I always enjoy any sort of travel holiday immensely, I don’t exactly equate my little trips with the sort of backpack toting pilgrims who make travel a large part of their life for a significant portion of time. When my husband and I sacrifice our feather top mattress and down duvet for a hotel mattress and duvet, (or a friend’s inflatable bed and kitchen facilities) we aren’t exactly drowning ourselves in the experience of travel. Rather, we’re indulging in a sanitized, watered-down version of it. Luxury travel is enjoyable, yes, but doesn’t challenge. Those who know me know I enjoy certain amount of challenge – it keeps my brain functioning at reasonable speeds.

The above missive may have given the impression that Glen and I have to date accepted nothing but the finest that holidaying may offer. Although the image of the indulgent silk-wrapped travellers suddenly exchanging their seaweed wraps for blistered feet and backpacks with chest straps would make for a far more amusing read, such is not the case. We may have not trekked across an unknown country yet, but we have travelled on the cheap and enjoyed every minute of it. We like hostels quite a bit, prefer buying our food in markets to eating in restaurants, and have a particular fondness for using my little Pontiac Sunfire as our mobile bunk. Once you drop down the car’s back seats, it can fit the pair of us quite nicely provided that we sleep at a slight diagonal, with our heads by the front seats and our feet in the trunk. Keep in mind that as I am a bit over 5’8” and my dear husband is 6’2” with a body that pumps out heat at the same rate as a coal burner; getting out of the car and scraping the accumulated fog and steam off the inside of the windows can be a stiff, awkward endeavour.

So we have travelled on the cheap, we have travelled on the fly. We have never travelled long-haul. We have never completely uprooted ourselves and lived away from the comforts of family and old friends. We’ve played around with the idea of adventure, but have never actually had one. That is about to change. We have made the decision that, barring the unlikely event that Glen should land a dream job in the next few weeks, we will be leaving in September for New Zealand and are planning on remaining there for the upcoming year. In order to fuel this exodus and not be completely destitute when we return, we shall be applying for Working Holiday visas so that we may earn a few coins while there. We are hoping to find work in our respective fields – I am a librarian with an accredited Master’s degree, and Glen is a graphic designer and developing sculptor. Being able to further our careers in a different country is quite an exciting prospect for both of us, and we would like to take advantage of it while we have the opportunity.

However, the availability of career-type work will not be a determining factor as to whether or not we go. We’re looking forward to doing sheer grunt work as well – picking fruit, tending vineyards, pushing cattle, bartending and waiting tables – in order to add to our travel budget. Such work is part of the backpacking experience, and I truthfully don’t think that either of us would be entirely satisfied if we did not shred our hands on at least a few fruit trees. Grunt work is part of any really good adventure.

At this point in time, we are in the planning phase. We will be applying for passports within the next couple of weeks and likewise applying for visas as soon as we get our passports. While I had been planning on establishing a travel blog to record our actual travel time, it occurred to me that the preparation is playing a significant role in this entire experience. Any sort of travel begins with the necessary preparation, which is proving to be a sufficient enough head-spinner for me to want to document it. The adage that every journey begins with a single step is very true, but you still need to get your shoes and water bottle first.