Travel Plans!

I think its about time I grew up a little, and did some independent travel. There has been heaps of talk about travel and stuff within the group with the trip to Melbourne coming up, new years, 21st and some of us finishing up uni, and i think its a really good idea to get started on seeing the world we live on! As cheesy as it sounds I think we all kind of know what I mean when I say I feel like an urge to explore and see the world. Especially now I'm getting older and I'm out of school, and sort of trying to figure out what I want to do with the rest of my dam life!

I don't know how, going on a plane to some random place and looking at a bunch of random stuff that won't mean very much to me(not to mention probably feeling really out of place and uncomfortable) is going to help me figure anything out. But people seem to think it will, so i may as well give it a try.

But its not just that, I want to see all of these places I've seen on movies and TV and have heard about my whole life. And try and really experience the culture and you know "see how the other half live".

I have been lucky enough to have seen some amazing places already! San Francisco, Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, Singapore, Fiji, Sydney, just to name a few! ;) ha ha

Only because of my mum being a flight attendant and I know I'm so lucky. But I was restricted by the fact I can only go places Air New Zealand flies to, so no New York or Paris, I can do London, but I just haven't yet. I feel like this was only a teaser to the much, much more that is out there.

So now you kind of know why I want to travel, here's my fairly loose travel plans for the next year-ish:

First upcoming trip is the group Melbourne trip I have planned. It was Lorenzo's idea kind of for all the boys 21st's this year. The plan was for everyone to get their parents to buy them flights and accommodation in Melbourne as their birthday gift! People on the band wagon are Lorenzo(obviously) and Georgia, Ben and Lucy, Bunny and I think Summar, and then me. As you may have picked up on, yes 3 couples and then me. The 7th wheel. But I really don't mind at all, its nothing I'm not used to. ha!

The trip is planed for a week, from the 5th of December. It will be a Monday - Monday(its cheaper that way).

When we get over there we just plan to shop, party and eat. Plus my very good friend Louise lives over there so she will be able to show us where the cool kids hang.

After Melbourne I have a family trip to Aspen, Colorado. We're going over to ski, i guess you could say skiing is our family hobby, but its more like my dads hobby/obsession and we(the rest of the family) have no real choice in the matter.

I don't mind though, its the only thing i have stuck to my whole life and am actually better than most of my friends at! Haha.

I think we are going there for about 2 weeks from the 3oth December. So I will be there over new years, which won't be great as the drinking age is 21 over there and I'll only be 20 :( but I not overly bothered about it. Free holiday, who's complaining?

Then I will be staying in NZ for a while as I'll have uni and stuff but I started making plans with Jane the other night about going and staying with her in London some time next year, as she will hopefully be living/working over there by then.

If all goes to plan I will spend 2 weeks there when I'm on my mid-semester break around June/July.

Also I was thinking on my way back I could stop in New York for another 2 weeks and stay with Erica.

I worked out that it will cost me next to nothing to get to London on my mums staff travel. Then London to New York shouldn't be too much as it is a really popular route. Then from New York I could either go NY-LAX-AKL or NY-LHR-AKL. Not sure which is cheaper yet.

But London would be amazing! Hopefully by the time I got there Jane would know her way around a bit and have her own place, so I could stay with her and she could show me around and we could maybe catch a cheap flight over to Paris or somewhere in cool Europe. I don't really know or care, just getting over there would be an awesome accomplishment for me.

In New York, I'd definitely want to see all the sights, the Statue of Liberty, go to Central Park and Time Square.

I'll have to research cool shops, cafes and restaurants to check out. As well as other tourist shit. I might buy some of those cheesy travel books and start getting smarter about this stuff.

Eventually I want to live overseas too, maybe after I've finished my study.

But that's all for now.

If you got this far, thanks for reading.

xx Budd