Best Laid Plans & Continental Contemplations 3.0 (Another interlude)

We are often asked about the planning pieces of travel - and I would say that we received great advice in this area - and yet cannot say we have nailed this skill - not sure anyone can (although many on instagram claim to have). We decided early to do most of the planning ourselves (ie without tour company or travel agent) because we had the time and wanted the budget to stretch as far as possible. Ian and I both backpacked “before the internet”, where a physical copy of a Lonely Planet guidebook would lead us to places to stay and things to do “on a shoestring”.... Options have grown exponentially and decisions feel more complex since then. 

The availability of online tools helps in many ways. Being able to find ‘homes’ to rent lets us escape the hotel feel; using a few favourite platforms for extended travel means we can access good discounts (we use booking.com and airbnb for most accommodations). We have found truly incredible gems. AI helps us filter through all the different ‘things to see and do’ taking into account what is good for the kids, traveller reviews, what neighbourhoods to stay in, local festivals etc; the right travel prompts have been a big learning and we are getting better at it. 

Country inn near Inverness

View from our rental in Austria

Rental home in Vaison La Romaine

One would think that more information eventually leads to more truth. In our ‘post truth era’ where information overload is the norm, we can see everywhere this is not the case. And indeed, more information about travel does not always lead us to the best experiences. We have often fallen victim to ‘analysis paralysis’ - looking at what feels like hundreds of places to stay that all begin to look the same without making a decision (then having to start the search over again if we leave it too long and what is available has changed). Or, despite hours of research and preparation, we miss a super salient piece of information that a travel agent would have caught in a heartbeat. Two weeks ago, we got our planned entry to Vietnam delayed by two days (after showing up at the airport at 4am no less) because of a mistake on Jasper’s visa application - we figured we could get it sorted on arrival in Vietnam haha - nope - the airline wouldn’t even let us board in Bali. Two days later - and a fee paid to a last minute visa fixer - had us back on schedule. 

Surf Camp Bali

Crescent Island house had hippos for neighbours

Positano neighbourhood

As with most things in life - balance is what we seek - finding the right mix between over and under planning. The kids can go squirrelly with “nothing to do” even when Ian and I would be content wandering the streets of a new place. Planning too much means we miss out on how something feels when we get there - and the last minute discounts. We almost never plan in advance where to eat - this has led to some amazing food, memorable experiences, and only a few disappointments (like the time in Wales when literally every restaurant in town was booked which we discovered thanks to wandering around in the rain for over an hour). 

Homework at house in Zanzibar

The planning success factors we find most helpful for long term travellers:

1. Set aside good chunks of planning time and dig in hard. Make lots of decisions (don’t overthink). Then leave it alone like you were leaving your desk at work. Try not to let constant searching bleed into down time. We have not always nailed this. 

2. Always look for places with free cancellation. We have used this for so many reasons - we decide to stay in a place we like longer than planned, we miss a train or have to change our plans (like when Ian had to go home to get a new passport from Europe, or when our flight got cancelled leaving Zanzibar). Paying for accommodations you don’t use really eats away at the budget. 

3. Crowdsourced reviews can really help decipher whether the photos are accurate. Be skeptical of staying anywhere that doesn’t boast a good number of reviews (we aim for 50+).

4. You can’t do everything, and there is no such thing as perfect (places to stay, things to do etc). 

5. Try to do one cool thing each day - and cool can be simple (like a new flavour of ice cream or a bike ride). Never plan more than one museum, sight, adventure per day - you can always add on (like when Jasper and I still had energy to spend an afternoon in the Tate Modern after a morning for all at the Tower of London - but Ian and Finn begged off). Down days when nothing is planned are critical. 

6. Keep a central tracking spreadsheet that includes where you made the booking and double check dates when you lock something in - Erin has goofed on this a number of times - going too fast and missing a critical detail like booking a jungle trip in the wrong month (ooops) or showing up for an activity on the wrong day (also ooops). With extended travel the details can so easily get mixed up. 

We have 2 months to go in our travels - and we have got it mostly mapped out where we will be for our remaining time (barring more hiccups that will inevitably change things). We are both keen to have a break from the constant need to plan so much of where to stay, what to do, what's next. The adventures it continues to bring us are amazing, but there is a certain luxury in not having to figure out what to do everyday that home routine provides. We are currently in Vietnam for a month - so will recount our experiences of that all together in the next blog.

Continental Contemplation 3.0 - Oceania

Oceania in its broadest sense covers an immense area encompassing all the islands in the Pacific Ocean. However the most common use limits the term to the bottom southern corner of the ocean that includes Australia, New Zealand and three other zones which we unfortunately didn’t make it to (Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia). Our travels here lasted about one month. When planning this trip we decided early to prioritize this part of the world even though it is difficult to get to. I’m sure anyone who calls New Zealand home can attest to how remote it really is. Flying to anywhere other than New Zealand is at least a 3 hour undertaking. 

Oceania was settled by indigenous peoples in two main phases: Near Oceania (Australia, New Guinea) about 50,000–30,000 years ago from Southeast Asia, and Remote Oceania (Polynesia, Micronesia) much later, starting around 3,400 years ago, with New Zealand settled only about 750 years ago. It’s crazy to imagine Maori people on small floating “boats” making the journey across some pretty impressive naval distances so long ago. 

Europeans didn’t “discover” this part of the world until the 1600s. The famous Captain Cook was instrumental in mapping and exploring much of the southern oceans through three voyages in the later 1700s, while looking for newer trade routes for spices, gold and other goods. He was witness to Tahitians on boards surfing on waves - becoming the first Europeans to witness the sport. His expedition was the first to see the eastern shores of Australia, and navigated through the Great Barrier Reef which runs all along the eastern coast of Australia for more than 2,000km! There is a highway that bears his name that we drove on to visit the Daintree Rainforest. Capt Cook, like many other Europeans, has a mixed history of “exploration and discovery” and ended up dying on the Hawaiian islands. 

The Sharps' arrival was significantly easier thanks to the wonder of air travel. Our flight from Singapore was still a 10 hour flight over 6 time zones and that was from somewhere ‘close’. The biosecurity hoops to jump through while arriving were significantly more than anywhere else. A multi-page questionnaire greeted us, with any of the questions making it feel like a long quarantine was in our future. Thankfully our time on safari and at a few farms and petting zoos was OK’d by the local authorities and we were given the green light to explore. 

The ecology and geography across the whole region is stunning. Auckland is known as the” city of sails” not because it is windy but because there is a high rate of boat ownership. We witnessed this often at beaches here that often have public boat launches that were highly utilized. New Zealand is on the edge of The Ring of Fire, a string of volcanoes and seismic activity around the edges of the Pacific Ocean. The plethora of seismic activity is everywhere, Auckland is site to some 50 volcanic domes remnants of still active volcanoes, the last of which erupted about 600 years ago. Many cities have steam rising from open hot springs and mud pits. A common nickname for Rotorua is “Rotten-rua” or "Sulphur City" due to the hydrogen sulphide emissions. While on the Coromandel peninsula we got first hand experience with some geothermal activity with hot springs in several places, most notably the ones we dug ourselves at Hot Water Beach. We found much of New Zealand life oriented around the beach - the fit and seemingly active population (at all ages) enjoy these public amenities thoroughly.

Our ability to settle in gave us a level of comfort on this leg of the trip which was nice- even though we spent most of our time in New Zealand in a campervan it still felt comfortable and was a great way to see so much of the country. People would often ask why just the north island as the south island has a more exotic and rugged geography that is very popular with travellers and we would have loved to see more of New Zealand but we just felt the north fit into our vibe a bit better. The north island is remarkably diverse in such a small area. 

Visiting Australia we only scratched the itch a bit. We only really had about 2 weeks of budget from a time and money perspective so we had elected to keep it simple and travel up the east side of the country. But saying we experienced Australia would be like visiting Vancouver island and saying you saw Canada-there is just so much else to visit and explore in this vast country. For as small and diverse as New Zealand, Australia is the opposite, huge! We'd love to come back and visit more of this massive and diverse nation; the wine country in the south and west, the vastness of the outback, the Sydney Opera house and the countless other beaches to surf and swim at.

To sum up our time here is to say we will be back. Our learnings were many, but we offer a few final thoughts for those considering a visit:

• Language, culture and many local customs, traffic and safety feel similar to Canada so the travel transition feels easy. 

• Costs are similar to Canada in terms of accommodations, food, and travel related expenses.

• Think through distances and when you will need to fly versus drive. Or bring a boat?!?

• Get outside! The natural beauty of these places really steal the show.

• Think through the season you intend to visit. New Zealand is as far south as Canada is north and in the “winter seasons” suffers from a similar lack of daylight. Northern Australia has a wet season that sees significant rainfall and typhoon activity. We luckily missed a Category 5 typhoon by a few hundred kms.