By the way, have you seen my map?
Through the course of planning this trip, lots of people have asked me about my motivations for doing this. To be honest I can’t really put my finger on exactly how the idea for this trip came into being, only that I have always had a sort of itch to travel and go on adventures, and it seemed like a good idea at the time 😉
However, there are a few people who are at least partly responsible for inspiring me to plan this particular journey:
Why New Zealand?
Basically, I have been promising to go to visit New Zealand roughly since I was old enough to talk thanks to my Aunty Carol and Uncle Graham who live there.
When we very small they bought us a book for Christmas entitled “What did we get for Grandpa?” which tells the story of a family Christmas on the beach. Every Christmas we would eagerly get it out and read about this intriguing, topsy-turvy, sunshine-filled yuletide celebration. I was hooked!
With New Zealand in mind, and knowing that I wanted to get a working-holiday visa while I was out there, I realised that I needed to hurry up and get plans in place. Working holiday visas for New Zealand are only available between the ages of 18-30 (technically up until the day of your 31st birthday,) and I will turn 30 this year while I am out on the road.
Why South East Asia?
Having decided to go to New Zealand, I was discussing my plans with my good friend Lisa who visited NZ a few years previously. She mentioned that South East Asia was basically only a hop, skip and a jump away from New Zealand when taking into account their relative distances from the UK, so I may as well go there too … well it would be rude not to, right?
Lisa also introduced me to Adventure Queens, an awesome community set up by adventurer Anna McNuff which has also been a great source of inspiration. Lisa herself is definitely truly deserving of the title “Adventure Queen”. Her blog can be found here.
Why Cycle touring?
The cycle touring element of this trip can be squarely traced back to John’s influence. I had never sat on a road bike before meeting him, but over the course of our relationship, bike trips have become a regular part of what we enjoy doing together, starting of with laps around Richmond Park and extending into rides into Surrey Hills, trips abroad to France and Mallorca, and a 100mile sportive – Velo Birmingham.
Why not flying?
NB: I am flying *a bit* but I’ve tried I’ve cut it down a quite a lot from my original plan
Since April, I have been getting involved with Extinction Rebellion in London, which aims aiming to bring about widespread societal change to safeguard the environment for future generations. Consequently, I am also trying to cut down my individual impact on the environment as much as possible, and cutting down on flying is one of the most powerful ways to do this.
Happily though, setting out to make this change has ended up with an amazing adjunct to my adventure, involving visiting 5 extra countries, and going on the world famous Trans-Siberian railway!
Dancing in the Dawn 