In December, I set out on the most enlightening 24 day journey of my life – a solo trip as a 26 year-old female, traveling halfway across the world to Australia and New Zealand. Afterwards, I returned home and threw myself right into one of the busiest busy seasons of my career.  I’ve barely had time to stop and reflect on my trip and I found myself responding to all questions with “it was AMAZING” (because it was) but, like, how could I sit and tell everyone everything every time that someone asked?  I’d never be able to do it!  So I’m here now, telling my story – reflecting on and reliving what was honestly the most badass thing I think I’ve done in my life.  And even here, because I don’t want to force you to read novels, trailing on for hours, it’s going to take me time to tell it all.

Where it all began:

It all started years earlier when I declared that one day I would make it to visit Australia.  It was the dream. The ultimate bucket list. Fast forward to May 2016, when one of my friends from KPMG left the states for a two-year rotation in Sydney.  It was time to begin planning.  I immediately looked forward into my work schedule and planned to ring in the New Year 2018 in Australia.  IT. WAS. HAPPENING.
Cue massive planning because, well, what else would you expect from me?  I researched for months, looking for travel guides to give me some sort of idea of where to go, what to see, how to spend my time.  Despite how hard I looked, though, I couldn’t find an itinerary even close to what I really wanted to do.  I started piecing together different ideas and different places, knowing that if I’m flying halfway across the world, I’m going to see and do EVERYTHING.
In an effort to get started, I booked a round-trip ticket to Sydney (although I regret this decision looking back as it added an extra five hours to my return trip) and started mapping out a plan.  I was leaving December 26th, the day after Christmas (and a Merry Christmas to me!) and would return on January 18, the following year.  Minus the travel time, I had a full 23 days, and before leaving, you better believe I had that itinerary booked up and packed full.
So where do I go?  What do I see?  How do I narrow it down to just a few places?!  I ultimately settled on the path below (at the highest level), reached out to the handful of people I know in Oz and started booking flights. After a busy couple of nights deal-searching and scouring the internet for flights and hotels, I officially had some means of transportation between each city and a place to sleep each night.

Itinerary:

I knew a total of seven people who lived in Australia, six of which were living in Sydney, one in Brisbane, so I front-loaded the trip with familiar faced and embarked into the unknown once leaving the second stop of my trip.

• Days 1-2: Traveling ~ 34 hours from ORF>JFK>SYD + the time change
• Days 3-8: Sydney 
• Days 9-11: Brisbane (pronounced Bris-been)
• Days 12-14: Cairns (pronounced Cans)
• Days 15-16: Melbourne (pronounced Melbun)
• Days 17-23: Southern Island of New Zealand traveling from Queenstown to Christchurch [more to come!]
• Day 24: Traveling ~36 hours from CHC>SYD>JFK>ORF and getting home only 12 hours after leaving (on paper) – oh time zones, you disorienting concept

 

I left the states with a bucket list of 24 things for 24 days, kicking off with bucket list item #1 (which was completely unrelated to traveling other than the fact that I had three weeks off from my professional, business woman life) – to dye my hair pink (are you sensing a trend here?).  That list quickly doubled once I was safely on solid land in such a new and exotic place. Along the way, I spent more time alone than I ever had before, but it was wonderful having the time by myself to spend time really getting to know me again.  Would I have loved to have my friends, my family or my boyfriend there?  Absolutely.  But am I stronger for doing this on my own? Damn right.
 

“I am woman, hear me roar.”
-Helen Reddy