And we’re off! An early start to the airport in Queenstown, and now all ready to take off in Auckland (no upgrades, for those invested in that journey)! 

Thanks for all your messages and love. 

Love Alice xx 

“9 hours, 18 minutes” reads the widget on my phone that has been counting down for many, many months at this point. Josh is sitting in bed next to me downloading books for the flight. My bag has been packed, and repacked, and repacked and is now sitting in it’s (hopefully) final state across the room, ready to be picked up and slung into the car at 5 AM tomorrow morning. It actually doesn’t feel real that we are finally leaving tomorrow - a lot of planning has gone into this moment, and I have that kind of nostalgic disbelief that comes with reaching a really big milestone. 

The last few days (and weeks) have been filled with special goodbyes, and we’re so grateful for everyone who has made this such a special period. I’ve spent the start of this week in Hāwea with Mum, Dad, Mackenzie and Jacob, and Josh has been here in Queenstown with his mum, Cathy. We also had such special goodbyes in Christchurch with our work friends, everyone at Ellen and Seb’s wedding, the Stilwell/Redfearn whānau, and my Grandad. Lots of tears of course, but I feel so lucky that our family and friends are overwhelmingly excited for us, and just can’t wait for us to get this show on the road!!

Tomorrow morning we’ll be up at 5 AM for a 6 AM check in at Queenstown airport, before a flight up to Auckland. Then, it’s ten hours across to Singapore, followed by a final four over to Colombo. We arrive at 11:30 PM local time, basically 24 hours after we leave Queenstown tomorrow morning. Forecast is showing a balmy 31 degrees and sunny! Not that much warmer than the 27 we’ve been having here in sunny Central Otago, but I’m pretty confident the humidity will bump it up another notch!! 

I’ve attached a few special photos of goodbyes over the last few weeks, as that feels like a super important part of kicking off this trip. 

Right now I am most excited about exploring a new city - the food, a yoga class, markets, people watching… and I’m most nervous about navigating public transport and trying to stick to our budget. I do think I may have packed too much stuff, so stay tuned for an update on that as we go! The real questions that all of my family want to know are - in a few weeks will Alice still have her Sol de Janeiro Bum Bum cream in her bag, and will Alice and Josh actually use the Therabands for at home/hostel workouts?!

Talk soon once we’re on the way.

Lots of love, 
Alice