PREPARATION

Here we go. To mis-quote Alan Moore's outstanding novel Watchmen: The BEGINNING is nigh. Roughly five weeks till departure. I'm honing the details, everything from shoes to rain-jacket, messenger bag to backpack, fully equipped with duel 26oz water bottles, 11" Macbook Air, Ipod, and a substantial mess of Ebooks. Life is ephemeral, always fleeting, fading, as we walk along the borders of our existence. I plan on being a hop, skip, jump, and two steps ahead of that falling twilight, face-to-face with the sun in it's ancient red sky. I'm ready to experience the vastness of our planet, feel the tingle of anonymity as I slip within the multitudes and move unrecognized, yet rising.

I renounce the stress, sex, and success

To settle for less and rest in knowing

That the simple blessing are the best

First stop, New Zealand, where I will explore the North Island, beginning with Auckland, continuing then to the South Island, Queenstown and surrounding areas, before leaving for Sydney, Australia and the entire East Coast ending in Cairns. That's one month in each Country.

Travel Guides have been gifted, books have been suggested, discussion extended, advice offered—I want none of this. I want this to be MY experience, good and bad, yes, and above all FRESH. To read or hear about it would ruin the suspense, the adventure, the awesome prospect of stepping into the Unknown, marveling in the brilliance of discovery. As with a film or book, I don't want to know "whodunit" or skip to the end, I want the newness and excitement of it, to be taken in by it, the twist and turns, the unexpected characters, heroes, villains and companions—the spontaneity of adventure!

Via The Bitter Eye I will record my thoughts and adventures.