For an adventure like this, how much planning do we have to do?
Passports to copy, visas to procure, insurance to buy, lodging to book, food to enjoy (or scarf) employment to (hopefully) not need, bank accounts to activate, itineraries to draft, tickets to guard, order confirmations to check, schedules to adhere to (or not), layovers to endure, kilometres to cover, pounds of weight to pack, valuable items to include, expendable items to, well…expend.
And then, hopefully, life altering experiences to be had.
Maybe a better question to ask is “to what extent can an adventure be planned?”
Sometimes you have to acknowledge that the unknown, no matter how hard you plan, will always be there, looming over you. So why not embrace it and let it take you all sorts of places? The question mark, that little squiggle, has helped humanity do some amazing things over the centuries.
I want to leave a lot in the unknown. People ask Bryan or myself if we have a specific plan and we really don’t. When you have a plan set out for yourself, the tendency is to stick to it (why? Who knows. Maybe out of respect for your past self; some kind of self-validation.) But we don’t want to be stuck and entrenched in any set experience while we’re there. We’re traveling to embrace a free, liberating lifestyle, and the more plans you have, the more life becomes expected, predictable, bland and boring. We have a loose idea of where we want to start, but from there it's all a beautiful, unpredictable haze of possibility.
It’s still early. We’re still two months away from even glimpsing the Remarkable Mountains on the south island or stepping foot on White Island (an active volcano!) in the north. Okay you got me, we’ve done a little research, but that’s besides the point. The point is there’s still time before we go, and a lot can change. But two months is really not all that much.
This countdown reminds me of counting down the last half hour of school in the early grades:
“I only have to do ten minutes, three times. No problem.”
We only have to do one week, eight times. A day passes quick.
And time keeps on ticking.
It’ll be interesting to see how our mindset and overall state change over those weeks. Right now, if there’s anything close to a ‘mantra’ or ‘slogan’ that Bryan and I have developed, it’s this:
“Say Yes”
In other words, to always be up for anything, to live positively, to be willing and open to new experiences, new challenges. To say yes to skydiving, yes to eating odd Maori delicacies, yes to walking on a live volcano, you name it.
( It's at this point I'll ask you to remove all thoughts of that mediocre Jim Carrey movie that bares some resemblance to this philosophy. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, then I wish I hadn't mentioned it and I should shut my big mouth.)
The more we're willing to say yes and seize opportunities (and when you seize your opportunities, they tend to multiply like microbes), the more chance we have of making every single day new, exciting, educational and challenging.
Because every single day should be.
And when we challenge ourselves to break out of our comfort zone and embrace a lifestyle free of excessive plans, pre-conceived notions, and daily routines, that nebula of the unknown slips into our lives for a brief moment.
It’s in that moment that pure and uninhibited human experience resides.
It’s in that moment when life is truly beautiful and the world extraordinary.
-K