For many years I have been obsessed by travel: an avid reader of Wanderlust magazine, travel books and literature, with a healthy interest in World Music and Cinema. I love learning about different people, places and cultures, exploring how differently we all live our lives. But while I've travelled quite a bit around Europe, world travel has always been a bit of a distant dream, something that hasn't seemed possible to me while I've been in the land of student debt (and so reluctant to get further into debt!)

Over the last couple of years a few events have occurred in my life that have changed this. Firstly, my sister Su & I spent a season working as Island Managers on Tilos, a tiny island in the South Dodecanese, Greece, that is a haven for bird life and walking. Sadly Laskarina, the company that employed us, closed at the end of the season, thus ruining my plans for the next year or so, but it did help me to pay off a huge chunk of debt and give me a taste of a different life. Anyway, we returned 'for a couple of months' to our lovely parent's 2-bedroom 'retirement' bungalow in North Norfolk, while we worked out what to do next, gradually settling back into work and life in the UK, and sliding back to 'normality'. Then Su, my sister who had never expressed the same interest in travel as me and longed to find a place to settle in the UK, surprised me enormously by proposing another trip together. My initial shock turned to delight, as we are so close, we share many similar interests and know that we work and travel well together.

Since then, our plans have developed quickly, and after an initial dismissal by STA Travel - where we were informed by a rather smug 23-year old that we were too old to get a Working Visa for New Zealand and might as well disappear and start making plans for our pensions (or something similar!) - we came across BUNAC, a company which provides an IEP Working Visa for those of us under 35 (which we are, just…). And on New Year's Day we booked our flights to Auckland for 2nd March (approximately 18 months after asking our long-suffering parents if we could stay for a month or two!) So we owe our parents enormously for putting up with us for so long and giving us a chance to save to enable us to have this next adventure - thank you both so much!

So now we've left our jobs (goodbye Dersingham Library & Hunny Bun Tearooms!) said goodbyes to our friends, and are in the process of clearing our stuff out of Mum & Dad's home, and packing. Our plans are to spend about 10 months in New Zealand, sharing our time between North and South Islands, working, exploring and saving, before travelling home via Australia and Southeast Asia. Other than that we wish to be as flexible as possible, to go where the adventures are, to open ourselves to all possibilities. We want to immerse ourselves in nature, walk in rainforests, along coastal paths and wrap up warmly to travel into the mountains. We want to explore and observe the wildlife, so different from our own. We wish to meet people, learn about different cultures and ways of living. We want to explore our spirituality, find out what is really important to us, live simply amongst nature, in nature. We want to sample local food and wine, and Su wants to work her way around the cookery schools (with me as chief sampler!) Explore the world, meet friends and most importantly have an absolutely fantastic time.

So it's a big goodbye to all our family and friends - we love you and will miss you enormously. Don't forget to check in from time to time to see how we're getting on - you can even come and visit us at any point!

See you in Auckland!

Lots of love, Jo & Su xxx