getting ready

So, in two weeks, Ryan and I are leaving the western and northern hemispheres to start a 7-month-long trek through the South Pacific, more specifically, Fiji, New Zealand and Australia. I was almost tempted to say we are about to leave the “civilization,” but that would, of course, be incredibly insulting to the Polynesian nations, although not at all unusual to come out of a white Westerner’s mouth.

Yes, we are going to a place that has rain forest, deadly animals, typhoons (the southern sisters of hurricanes) and coral reefs. But we are not leaving the civilization, although that might actually be exactly what we want to do. But even though we are going to the other side of the world (in my mind, the direction of our trip looks like a diagonal on a globe, which must be some kind of a geometric illusion), we will be in touch via this blog that I am now laboriously trying to begin, wondering: how the hell does one begin a blog???

So maybe I’ll start with the question that we’ve been facing a lot lately:
Why Fiji?

And why not, we ask.

But there is an answer, too. Ryan has been dreaming about the South Pacific for the last 2 years and now that I finished film school, and we no longer have the need to stay in the sterile and impersonal world of dirty politics called Washington, DC – what better way to get from America to Europe, from temporary to settled adulthood, than taking the long way home via some turquoise-tinted tropical paradise? It’s not that we’re rich or lazy to start careers. We’re just dedicated to adventure. And what better time to start an adventure than now?

So we are packing, shipping, selling, discarding or donating our accumulated material wealth in order to move out of the country, yet leave only with two backpacks. If you think that’s a lot of work, you’re damn right. That’s why I revisited my anal-retentive side and started early, so that I don’t have to experience the pre-departure panic of “too much crap and too little time” and really enjoy the last weeks in DC in relative harmony.
But the stress is worth it. Or at least I hope it will be.

We’ll spend 4 months backpacking over the islands of Fiji, 2 months in New Zealand, 1 month in Australia and then 1 week in Thailand on our way home (with a brief stop in London to see our dear friends Marc and Eileen). That’s pretty much all we know about our trip at this time. Well, we know that we will probably spend some time on a beach, some in a rain forest, drink kava, wear sarongs, shear some sheep, and sight a kangaroo at some point or another during our trip. But if you want to know more, then join us on this journey and log on to this blog again. We’ll try to update it weekly together with new photos and adventures.