See, I told you.

Gorgeous pictures. I took this from the water off of Key Largo.

First piece of gear!

I really should have posted this back in late June, when I bought it, but I have procured my first real piece of gear for the trip: a new camera!













It's a Pentax Optio WP, a 5 megapizel pocket-sized waterproof digital camera. And it takes gorgeous pictures (see following post).

Two months in...

So, I've passed the two month mark on my planning. It was early May when I decided to embark on this journey. So far, I've gotten my passport, gotten a working holiday visa for New Zealand, and I've done lots and lots of research. Pretty soon, I'm going to need to begin taking more concrete steps - buying gear, checking visa requirements, finally deciding what type of ticket to use for the trip, figuring out when/how to alert my job that I'll be leaving. And perhaps most importantly, what to do about my apartment! I really need to call the rental office anonymously and ask about their position on subletting.

First milestone!

Today I received my Working Holiday Visa for New Zealand! It was far easier than I thought. I simply went online, applied on the NZ Immigration website, and within hours I was sent an electronic visa. Now I have my first real deadline for the trip - I must enter NZ by July of 2006 or I lose my visa. Exciting!

PS I guess my real first milestone was actually last week when I got my renewed passport back from the government. But this is the first one directly related to trip planning.