Dan's Prologue

Here's the long-winded, redundant, introduction to our trip, from my point of view. I just wanted to highlight some of the ideas and modes of travel that we'll be exploring.

So what makes this trip different, besides the fact that I'm not going alone? Well, New Zealand being an English-speaking developed country is a bit of a break from the 7 previous months in India I've accumulated. This means several things: I'll be able to relate to people immediately, once I start to catch on to kiwi slang. It means in-depth conversations with locals, not just other travelers. Being so similar to BC (or so everyone always imagines), means we won't feel so much like tourists and will be able to be much more independent than in a country where we don't know the language, the customs, or even how to find answers. Instead of simply escaping to a seemingly exotic Asian country and bumming around for a while, I'll be able to actively engage and expand a little, keeping things relevant to my life in Canada. Which brings me to the themes of our trip, the way I see it:

Green Living - Is it possible to be green while traveling? Having a water purifier saved me from buying plastic bottled water every day on previous trips, but what about recycling? Will I be able to recycle, reduce and reuse while on the road? It will probably be challenging in some ways. We plan on hitchhiking everywhere that we can. That means my carbon footprint goes from that of a pizza delivery driver to that of a pedestrian. I'm interested in seeing how easy it will be to reuse things on the road, like plastic bags, and if it'll be practical to avoid excess packaging, and that sort of thing. Not to mention all the unforeseen challenges of trying to not overconsume while abroad.

Hospitality Exchange - We really embraced couchsurfing this summer (mostly just to have some sort of social life), and we racked up a number of good references, which hopefully makes it easy to find hosts along the way. This of course means we won't have to pay for accommodation (combining with our tent hammocks when we want to sleep a bit closer to the ocean). I have a lot of thoughts on Couchsurfing (big surprise), but overall it seems like a great way to stay grounded on a trip. In fact, instead of planning an itinerary of stops and sights, we're going to especially rely on CS hosts to tell us what is and isn't worth checking out. CS will mostly be used in transit though. The big hospitality exchange will be working on farms, via WWOOFing and HelpX.

Like-minded folks - After 6 months in Whitehorse, seemingly void of all interesting people, I'm going to actively seek out people I share common interests with. I want to eat with vegetarians, shoot the shit with Anarchists, and farm with environmentalists. By narrowing my searches on CS, it should be pretty easy to pick out sympathizers.

Farming - I'd really like to grow as much of my food as possible. I'd love to get off the grid. In fact, I'm really interested in scouting out some eco-villages and investigating alternate ways of organizing societies on small scales. How practical is all this? How much of it is pie-in-the-sky? That's what I'd like to figure out.

Camping and Tramping - We're not gonna stay in hostels and we're probably not going to stay in too many campgrounds. We're gonna try low-impact random camping anywhere that it seems practical. The country's population density isn't too high. Trees shouldn't be hard to find with a bit of forethought (google maps satellite view). Fresh water and private beaches. It just makes sense to try a little renegade camping and see how it goes. Tramping/trekking is going to a bit different than back home. With nearly 1000 huts along the trail systems of the country, we won't need tents. Our hammocks should do us just fine down low, and when we're hiking up high, we should be able to stay in a hut almost every night, especially if we avoid the weekends. For around $100 each, we can get passes allowing us free stays in almost all of the huts and campgrounds in the country.

So that's the gist of it. Trying to figure out new ways forward. Get inspiration from like-minded folks, try out some new methods (hammocks!), and try to figure out how to live a better life back home.

We leave November 17 and are scheduled to fly back March 24.