Part I- Getting Ready to Go
How do you enjoy a vacation? Do you want every moment planned by a tour agent? Do you want to be on your own and explore everything on your own? Do you prefer to travel without an agenda—to be totally spontaneous and decide where you will go each day, and begin the next day where you ended up the night before?
What style a traveler are you? Spontaneous or Super-Scheduled?
Throughout the years as Ed and I have traveled throughout the world, we have compromised in our travel styles. Ed prefers to be totally spontaneous—to travel without plans and see where you end up. That, of course drives me crazy, especially when you have to make reservations in advance at hotels before the end of each day. In addition, I prefer to study and research everywhere we are going so I can understand and appreciate the culture and history of where we will be traveling. Which has been fine with Ed; I have explained the history and culture about where we are when we get there. That way, Ed can be spontaneous and I can be ready for wherever we end up. But to do that, I have to be psychic and know where we will be at the end of the day!
Planning for the Trip:
Our trip to Australia and New Zealand was more planned than Ed preferred. We had reservations in each city, we knew how long we would be there, and we had several planned tours in each city (that was at my insistence). I had studied and read a book, The History of Australia and New Zealand, so I had a very basic understanding of their history. I had a copy of the book on my kindle so I could refer to it whenever I needed. (I also purchased another history when we got into a discussion with another couple about whether Maoris were cannibals as that book claimed). I also had purchased, Aborigines, Dreams and Myths, by William Ramsay Smith, and BLUE LATITUDE, BOLDLY GOING WHERE CAPTAIN COOK HAS GONE BEFORE , by Tony Horiwitz. I also watched the movie Australia, which is very important to understand the aborigine history of the country.
:) Know What You Want to Do before You Go: We had studied the travel guides and asked people what to see and do so we had a list of activities scheduled when we talked to the travel agent, so she set up the tours we asked her to set up. We only had her schedule one or two tours per city (during a week-long stay). That was more than enough for my husband—he wanted to do more exploring on his own, than guided tours.
:)Travel Guides: I bought several travel guides before we went to Australia including Frommer’s Australia and Fodor’s Australia. Frommer’s was by far more helpful, with information on hotels, restaurants, transportation, how to get visa’s and everything you needed to know; Fodor’s told you what to see and that was all. If a person did not want to use a travel agency, you could use Frommer’s and the internet and the activity booklets from the hotels and get along just fine.
:)High Tech Traveling: Ed and I both have a background in technology, so I wanted to go high-tech in my traveling.
• I brought my GPS and downloaded a city-explorer map of Sidney and Melbourne, Australia on my GPS so we could get around with it.
• I carried my ipod touch and my laptop with me.
• As mentioned before, I had a kindle with many books (so I didn’t have to carry a suitcase full of books), and the ability to download any books I needed to understand the history, culture and or anything else I needed to know about Australia and New Zealand.
• I had electricity converters and adapters so I could use my electronic equipment.
• I brought a small bag with all my electronic attachments, plugs, chargers, etc.
:)Cameras: I brought two cameras with me to catch the memories of our trip; one single-reflex camera with a wide-angle lens, standard lens, and a telephoto lens; and a small camera that would fit in my purse that went from wide angle and micro to telephoto. I downloaded the images from them to my laptop each night.
TO BE CONTINUED: Part II: Arriving in Australia
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