An introduction: "Taking the Tiki Tour" is slang in New Zealand for taking the scenic route, a fact I will make sure to check as soon as I get there, so as to legitimize any cleverness I pretend to possess in naming things. Traveling 8,000 miles to go to school in a country that holds some of the most stunning landscapes in the entire world certainly seems rather scenic .
AHHHHHHHHHHHH. 8,000 miles, really? Picking up my flight itinerary last night I stopped dead in my tracks and it hit me that yes, I am just about to spend the next 5 months of my life in a place from which google maps can't calculate a route home.
The reason for doing a blog about the experience? My sister did it. Not gonna lie.
I will spend the next 5 months studying at the University of Victoria in Wellington, New Zealand. I will be studying architecture and music, depending on how class enrollment finalizes in the next week.
This first post is also a test to see if I am able to use this "blog" technology, an interesting thing to discover sitting at a Burger King in LAX whilst hanging on by a thread to free Air France Lounge wifi. So far so good.
So welcome to my tour. I depart today in two hours on Air NZ flight #5 and will arrive 13 hours (yes, THIRTEEN hours) later. The next you hear from me I will have flown into Auckland en route to the final destination of Wellington, trying to convince new Kiwi friends that I did not travel to their country JUST because I saw the Lord of the Rings. Just kinda.
Until then, back to burgers and guidebooks!
Alec
->an inspirational and relevant poem to kick off the trip
The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.
-- J R R Tolkien
