So This Is A Thing That Is Happening.....

I'm going to New Zealand on Friday.

*pause for freak-out*

And actually, that's not technically accurate - on Friday I'm getting a plane from London to San Francisco, spending a couple of days there and, on Sunday evening, flying out to New Zealand. When I first tell people this, their standard reactions tend to be: -
1. Are you emigrating?!?!?!
2. Oh.....like a gap year thing?
3. You lucky *insert swearword here*
So, to avoid confusion, no I'm not emigrating, no I'm not going on a gap year (yet) and yes, I am a lucky *&~#. No, it's actually just a family holiday for me, my little brother and parents. I say 'just' a family holiday - it's the longest and most expensive one we've ever been on by a LONG way, but since it might be our last time going away all together (because I'm off to uni next year), we thought we'd pull out all the stops.

And I'm not just posting this on my blog to gloat. Ha. I'm actually posting this as a sort of introduction to what I'm hoping will be a series of travel-blogs, which my friends can keep up to date with (read: forget the existence of) and which I can read back in a few months time and remember how good life can be.

So the plan for New Zealand is to drive from the top of North Island to about halfway down South Island (I'll give you place names when I'm actually there -- at this point I actually only know random names like 'Christchurch', 'Rotorua' and then a series of places that sound like someone listing Chinese food through a sneeze). We're going to be there for just under three weeks, on top of a couple of days in San Francisco on the way out and a couple of days in Los Angeles on the way back. I am, understandably, obnoxiously excited about this - more excited than I think I've ever been for a holiday, and there are several personal goals I want to accomplish whilst I'm out there.

One of these is to keep a regular blog. Obviously I don't know how much internet access I'm going to have, or time to write, but I'll do my best and I HOPE I'm going to be able to update twice a week, at least... The theory behind this is that if I'm doing some kind of regular writing again, hopefully it will wear my writer's block down a little, to be able to make a fresh start in the new year...

Another of these aims is, frankly, to cheer up. One way or another, I've been feeling quite down lately, what with writer's block, an overactive imagination and a general feeling of being ignored by anyone and everyone in any professional capacity. And when other people are down it winds me up, and it has now actually reached a stage where I'm winding myself up, so my attitude is -- if I can't buck up in New Zealand, what the hell hope is there??

My third aim - which kind of relates to aim two - is something I stole from nerimon's video blogs. I wear a plaited bracelet on my right wrist (given to me by the lovely LadyRosalind), and my challenge is - for twenty one days (or, whilst I'm in New Zealand) to not complain about anything. Everytime I complain I have to swap my bracelet to the other wrist and start the countdown from scratch. I'm sure my friends wish they were around to see this, and I think we all know I'll give up on day two, but there's no harm in trying...

But yeah, I think that's basically it....so I guess I'll see you in New Zealand!