I knew I wanted to travel to New Zealand even before I had decided to take a year off to travel. Maybe it was the Lord of the Rings? Maybe it’s the sheep?  I have no clue where this idea sparked from but there was a desire deep within me to take off to a place completely unknown to me on the other side of the world. I am probably not alone in having this urge however I bet most people just shrug it off as being unreasonable. If so comment below and tell me about it! Being a Canadian citizen made the decision to travel to New Zealand that much easier as we have an agreement with over 20 countries where we can both work and travel.  Check out the rest of the countries here!

The process to decide where else we would travel was an easy one. With New Zealand being non negotiable, David and I made a list of top 10 countries we wanted to travel to. It helped that we wanted to visit the same countries. From there we selected the countries that made most sense based on the strength of the Canadian dollar (Ouff, come on CAD!! RISE!!), the weather and proximity to the other countries of travel.

So which ones made it?

In order of travel..

• New Zealand  ( i said it was non negotiable)
• Indonesia
• Thailand
• Cambodia
• Laos
• India
• Philippines
• Australia

I won’t go into too much detail about this itinerary as I am conscious of how quickly things can change. Part of this journey is being completely OK with ambiguity and not getting fixated on my plans. For those that don’t know me, when I say I am going to do something, I do it! As I grow older and wiser, I am starting to recognize that loosely held plans are a feeding ground for amazing things to happen. Who’s got a story where things didn’t go as planned and its one of your most memorable memories?

And so, with a few weeks left, I am excited, nervous and cannot wait to walk down this path!

Nisreen