Day -14!

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Wow! This time in two weeks we will be at Heathrow, waiting to board our flight. We can hardly believe it, time has gone so fast....but I think we are almost ready. All the little bits and bobs have been bought and I cant wait to put them all in my rucksack and get going. We have spent so long planning everything and doing the research, we cant wait to see these places in the flesh. Not to mention finding out whether our chosen rucksacks, shoes, fleeces and clothing stand up to the test!

This week we decided to add two more days onto the end of the trip. This rather amusingly (and completely coincidentally) means we will be going 'Around the World in 80 Days' just like Philaes Fogg! We had one disappointment with Sydney, the YHA Central we had chosen turned out to be fully booked the day we wanted to make the reservation. So we now somehow find ourselves with reservations for two hotels, the Ibis Darling Harbour and the Radisson, which is rated number one on Trip Advisor!. They are both a little more expensive than the ten pounds a night we have been aiming for, but then in Sydney I'm not even sure ten pounds a night gets you a dorm bed shared with 16 people! Accomodation here certainly seems more expensive than anywhere else in Australia we have looked at. We will have to chose between them somehow, or go down different track completley and chose the Railway YHA instead! It is so tempting to have a bit of luxury for a few days, but then if we stay at the YHA we could save a lot of money that might be useful at a later date. I am sure whatever we decide will be the right choice.

I have been looking a lot at New Zealand this week. We have twenty seven days there and that still doesn't seem long enough! The more I read about it, the more there seems to do there. We are both very concious of not rushing around in an attempt to see everything - and ending up spending most of the time in a car. If it means on certain days we have to make longer drives so that we can spend a few more days in one place then that is what we will do. The main thing is that we enjoy it at our own pace. Personally I cannot wait, it seems such a magical place.

This week is Max's last at work, which will no doubt be quite an emotional time for him, full of both sadness and excitement at what lies ahead. It will certainly be the biggest thing we have ever done in our lives to date. Seven countries, three continents, eighteen flights and countless memories later, and hopefully it will all be worth it. I have no doubt that it will.

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Photos

Just like Philaes
When we watched the cartoon as children we never thought we would one day do this ourselves!

Comments

[NB]

Mwahahahaaaa
hello Max and Clare's blog! Its very exciting for you isn't it? 80 days to change your life :-)