Australian Sabbatical 2025-26

 Here we go! After months of preparation, we are hours from embarking on a long-term adventure down under. Leaving from Vancouver, we travel 12 hrs direct to Fiji with Fiji Airways.  After 6 days in Fiji, we will fly directly to Melbourne.

Nicole has every long-haul travel merchandise or hack that you can purchase and is ready for every eventuality.  We have Canadian flags attached to everything visible. We have packed chargers, converters, clothes for two seasons, and even a flute!

We have packed, unpacked, repacked, and repeated the process multiple times. Much of the repacking centred around which books we wanted to take and which ones we could live without. Turns out, that wasn't an easy process, despite owning a Kindle and a robust Audible library. 

 It's been a month of goodbyes. dinners, parties, coffees, and walks. So grateful for all the wonderful and thoughtful friends we have. We will miss them more than they know. 

While we are excited about this new chapter, there are moments of angst and trepidation that creep in unexpectedly among the times of joyful planning and steal a bit of the carefree childlike anticipation. We still don't have a visa, and moving to another country, even for a year, is a logistical challenge akin to scaling Everest, but the biggest "catch your breath" moments definitely come when we think of leaving our family and our home. So hard to be so far from the kids. Adults though they are, there is a small sense of loss at missing the everyday moments and connection that make up the core of family life. Walks, dinners, games, and casual conversation in passing, like "how was your day?" just can't be replaced by a video chat. 

So, with emotions a little raw the last few weeks, and all our bandwidth focused on preparations, we are finally ready to get on the plane! It will be good to "get this show on the road," as my parents used to say. 

Southern Hemisphere, here we come!