A collection of blogs of our more significant adventures over the years.
South Pacific 1997
This is an account of our travels to Fiji, New Zealand and Australia. We both decided in late 1997 to give the rat race a break and head for the antipodes. So, a month or so later, we both quit our jobs and we're off…..
Australia 2002 - Trip 1
Four years after our original sojourn to the land down under, Lynn and I have decided to do it all again. This trip will be a little more expeditious than the last, but no less fun for that.
So, how do we get to this point again? Lynn is a freelance writer (and therefore a free agent) with an extreme aversion to any climate even remotely approaching inclemency. Nick, for reasons way too complicated to relate here, has determined that a year away from the rat race (a.k.a. work) is the only possibility way of holding on to his health and sanity. Therefore, we both find ourselves with time on our hands and located in a state with a predilection for rain at this time of year (and copious amounts of it).
Australia 2002 - Trip 1
Well gentle reader, we just couldn't stay away, could we? As you may have gathered from the last instalment, we're halfway through a year long sabbatical from the rat race. No sooner than we touched down in Portland at the end of our last trip did we ask ourselves - "What were we thinking?". It's cold and wet back home in Oregon - we should have stayed in Australia.
So, a little over a month later we're off to the land down under. This will be a shorter trip and we plan to spend most of our time in Adelaide, reconnoitring for the possibility of a move down here later on. Hell, this is almost work! Perhaps we can write off the trip on our taxes?
The other reason for the trip is that I didn't get any diving in last time and the Great Barrier Reef is beckoning. So, after a week in Sydney, Lynn will be heading West for Adelaide to start the research, while I'll be heading north to Townsville where my ship awaits (you've got to have some fun, right?). Anyway, we're getting ahead of ourselves here. Read on for the juicy details...
A Moving Adventure
In this chapter we’ll not be chronicling our next vacation, but our translocation to some other part of the world.
First, some background. After four trips to Australia, and getting rather sick and tired of the weather and provincialism in Oregon, we decided to pack up and emigrate down under. I’m already half way though a year long sabbatical from the rat race of work, and Lynn is a freelance writer, so we had no particular ties to this state.
So, after returning from our last trip to Australia, we decided to sell the house, get a visa and head south. We had vague and idealistic plans to put the house on the market, and while waiting for it to sell, we could enjoy one last summer in Oregon, get the visa, work out all the details and be ready to move sometime early fall (autumn). Still, life doesn’t always work out according to plan, does it?
Australia 2009
Three years on we’re still very much in love with the country, but have somewhat failed in our attempt to move one lane to the left in the rat race. We find ourselves living in a big house, with a big mortgage, and both working hard in big, challenging jobs. Nothing wrong with all of that mind you, just not what we set our to do.
After much sole searching, we decided to yank the handbrake and take a sharp left turn out of the rat race. The goal – a few months of travel and adventure, followed by a year or so in another part of Australia a slower pace is a statutory requirement.
So, we’ve both quit our jobs and rented out the house and we're now working out the kinks in our suitcase packing strategies...
South East Asia 2009
The sojourn continues - a week after returning from Western Australia, we're getting ready for a trip to Vietnam and Cambodia...just because it's there.
I'm heading over to Vietnam a few days ahead of Lynn to reconnoitre and get some of the more adventurous activities out of the way...