After years of saving, countless hours of day-dreaming, over a decade of penny-pinching, and too much time reading about it, I think I am finally embarking upon the ultimate dream of my youth!

I didn’t know if I’d ever get here, and now that I have it feels a bit surreal.   Essentially, the goal is to live abroad seeing the world in a slow, deliberate, anything-goes, itinerary-free way.   I’m still figuring out the money business, but I’m determined to make it work!

I love to plan, organize, and problem solve.   Just as much, I love to be spontaneous.   So, the plan is not to have a plan for longer than a few days or weeks at a time.   Instead, I have broad ideas and hopefully the flexibility for the details to take shape along the way.

My New Zealand work visa is for a year.   If all goes well in the financial department, I’ll stay that whole time.     I imagine I may pick fruit, bartend, waitress, harvest vegetables, muck horse stalls, who knows?!   Then, hopefully, it will be off to… Asia?   Indonesia?   India?

I know there’s lots to see back at home, and seeing the whole of the U.S. is definitely on my life list.   However, while I’m young, childless, and able to be wonderfully flexible, I’d love to see as much of the world as I can afford.   A favorite singer of mine says it well: “I guess I came out here to see some stuff for myself.   I mean, why leave the telling up to everybody else?”

Click here to read entries about New Zealand.

The link above leads to the first post after touching down.  Just keep clicking to follow the trip chronologically.

RETROSPECTIVE:

Did I love New Zealand?   Sometimes.   Did I hate New Zealand?   Sometimes.   You can read my parting thoughts here.