The journey between backpacking and 'real life'

Since we made the decision to go to London there have been a lot more decisions to be made, a lot more things have happened and there have even been a doubt or two.

So lets start at the beginning. Step one was the flights, which were all done while we were still in Asia. It worked out cheapest to take two seperate one way flights, Auckland to Kuala Lumpur and Kuala Lumpur to Standstead. No frills, no food, nothing fights.

Step two was attaining Visas for the UK. This process turned out much easier than anticipated. We did the whole process ourselves (to save money) and had our passports back in hands within 10 working days.

Spike and I with Manly in the backgound

Next we headed to Sydney for 6 days to catch up with Spike middle brother Greg and his girlfriend. we ended up being stranded by the ash cloud and almost two weeks later we made it back to NZ just in time for me to make it to a 21st on less than four hours sleep. We learnt on this trip that we have one trip only insurance. So basically I paid for a whole year, but as soon as I hit NZ shores it became invalid. What a nightmare. And f course, Jetstar didn't give a toss that our Sunday evening flight couldn't be rebooked until the following Friday (how two days of not flighing equals 5 days of delay I will never understand).

Keg & Spike looking at the lack of surf at Curl Curl

Syndey brought back to live the orginal plan to move there rather than London. The money, the weather and the lifestyle. Needless to say it is still sitting in our minds as a possible next step. Have to get a head somehow.

JetStar is really out to get me. Happens that we had the first leg of the trip to London also booked on this challenging airline. When I finally managed to get hold a person to upgrade my already purchased luggage 5 more kgs I was informed I couldn't do that. Although I could when I first booked, and I can at the airport. I could go on for quite a while with all the details, but you get the basic idea that they are retarded. I plan on doing my very best to aviod them in the furture.

Upon returning to NZ we had less than three weeks before take off. Rearranging and repacking of things, a weekend out a Bland bay catching up with friends and now I am back packing my bag again. I have no idea what to take with me this time round, it feels a lot harder than packing for backpacking. Not totally sure why.

We have somewhere to live for a month, which is nice and in a matter of a week the job and flat hunts will fully be underway when we settle into the next step. Living in London.